Microsoft is switching to 100 percent post-consumer recycled printing paper at its headquarters and other offices, the company has announced.
Washington-based Grays Harbor Paper will begin supplying Microsoft with the paper at all its Puget Sound facilities, including its Redmond, Wash., headquarters, beginning this Friday. The initiative will expand to all of Microsoft’s U.S. operations over about three months.
The 100 percent recycled paper will replace Microsoft’s current printing stock, made with 30 percent recycled materials. Office supply provider Staples Advantage will fulfil the orders, starting with about 1,340 cartons a month for the Puget Sound facilities, expanding by approximately 426 cartons per month when all of Microsoft's U.S. operations are included.
The IT giant expects the switch to save about 2,500 million BTUs of energy a year, the equivalent of 750 million pounds of carbon dioxide, and to preserve about 8,000 trees annually. Grays Harbor also expects that it will reduce solid waste by eight garbage truck-loads, and wastewater by the equivalent of five Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The Harbor 100 paper that Microsoft is buying is certified by Green-e. The energy used to manufacture the paper comes from wood waste sustainably gathered from the forest floor, and the paper is manufactured using a chlorine-free chemical process, Microsoft says. The post-consumer fibers making up the paper all come from the Northwest.
Geoff Cottrell of the Microsoft Global Procurement Group was in charge of the project, together with stakeholders from Staples Advantage.
Microsoft says it recycles an average of 208.8 tons of materials from the Puget Sound campus each month, reducing its landfill waste by more than 50 percent.
