Client Confidential - Newspaper Life Cycle Assessment

Business Challenge:

A major media company wanted to determine the production footprint for a single copy of its newspaper in order to better understand its risk exposure as part of the pulp and paper industry supply chain.

Our Approach:

• The product lifecycle delineated eight different phases, yielding the production of newsprint as the most influential.
• To calculate the product footprint, ClearCarbon utilized GHG quantification methodologies, as well as mill-specific emissions factors from the use of biomass for newsprint mills.
• ClearCarbon was able to collect first-hand activity data from supplying paper mills and newsprint facilities, providing transparent and actionable information.

Value Created:

ClearCarbon documented and detailed the manufacturing process, and identified suppliers in the newspaper supply chain. Individual printing plant carbon footprints were presented as part of the results, allowing for efficiency comparisons amongst the companies facilities. In addition, due to the completeness of the study, the company was also able to identify newsprint suppliers with above average understanding of their own carbon emissions.

Project Staff

• J. Renee Morin