The paper distributor of the future will assist facilities in closing the loop of sustainability by...

• Providing a broad line of environmentally friendly products

• Providing training and resources tailored specifically to the type of facility

• Promoting communication, community involvement and providing a vehicle for idea sharing

• Pursue ways to lessen it's own environmental impact

• Provide programs to assist facilities in returning their recyclable materials back in to the loop

With your support, we will design and fulfill the responsibilities

of the paper distributor of the future.

In all honesty, our current product mix is not ideal to our EF Initiative. Our goal is to change that and we are making progress. We have invested a great deal of time in researching and sourcing alternatives to our traditional items. Our initial focus was on our disposable tissue, towels and napkins. We chose to feature products manufactured by Cascades Tissue Group (http://www.cascades.com/tissuegroup). They have gone far beyond EPA compliance in regards to recycled content. Innovations such as using 80% less water per ton that the industry average, process heat recovery, certified chlorine free processing and their reduction of carbon emissions played a major role in our decision to feature their brands. Ton for ton, our Cascades Tissue Group products account for over half of the weight of our products on a month to month basis.

Beyond our disposable paper products, we have a growing line of foodservice products that are either partly made from recycled materials or made of fully renewable resources. Many of these items are also recyclable, biodegradable and/or compostable. We are also working on bringing in a line of environmentally friendly cleaning products which will likely be available sometime during the month of November 2007.

As our initiative grows, we intend to insure that we are staffed accordingly in order to provide our customers with top rated customer service and knowledgeable staff with dedicated time to provide training. The relationships that we are developing with manufacturers and distributors will also provide support. We also aim to provide online resources including a moderated forum for sharing ideas, training tools and frequently updated news.

In regards to lessening our environmental impact, we try our best to reduce, reuse, recycle and respect. Many aspects of this philosophy, in our opinion, only make sense to a business from an operating cost perspective. Reducing usage, our waste stream and reusing items that many operations would simply throw away has saved us countless dollars over the years. Similarly, efficient delivery routing reduces fuel consumption and emissions.

We have recently implemented a small but growing recycling program in our facility. We have also opened our program to our employees which makes it a simpler task for them to return recyclable materials back to the loop. We hope that this becomes a successful program and hope that other businesses follow suit.

Tying in with our in house recycling program, and likely the most exciting thing we currently have planned, is expanding our services to our customers. We intend to begin a pilot program aimed at small businesses to assist them in their recycling initiative. In the coming weeks, we intend to begin picking up cardboard from some of our existing customers. We are starting with a “Think big, but start small” mindset as we are certain that there will be obstacles and challenges. We hope to use the program to get an idea of costs involved and how to offset them. More details will follow under the title of EF Initiative Recycling Program and a link will be added here as well as on our Eco-Friendly home page.