We all like to believe that we are doing what we can for the environment. Just this morning on the way to work (yes, I drive) I, along with 100,000 other people, were on the highway trying to get to where we need to go when the idea for this post came to me. When you think of “environmentally friendly” and “sustainability” what do you think? Is it solar power? wind turbines? cars that run on electricity? or is it something else entirely?

To me, and to all of us here at Northview, sustainability and environmental conscience come from making the reasonable and honest effort to do what we can and let me tell you .. it aint easy brother (and sister)

Paper, and ink.. cost money. Probably a lot more money than you think. Add to that the certifications required to prove you are doing whats right, and that cost climbs extraordinarily. To us it’s worth it but what we are increasingly finding is that it isn’t worth it to consumers and businesses or maybe, hopefully, they just haven’t been given the option yet.

Here is an example. A client wants 1000 4 colour legal size envelopes and 1000 pieces of letterhead (we are not even going to begin to talk about business cards! Think long and hard about the environmental sensitivity and conscience in the ink and stock of a $9.99 set of 500 cards! ) and that client, obviously, wants the best price possible based on the work required. As we always do, we offer the client certified product from sustainable sources but at a higher cost. Not exponentially higher, but higher all the same. The amount of work is the same, the quality is the same, but the stock and ink being used to produce it are higher, thus, the over all cost is higher. how many of those clients and consumers do you believe opt for the certified products? its frightening actually.

Outside of educational institutions and government (who don’t mind using your or students money to “do the right thing”) approximately 93% say no.

Northview is a huge user of 100% enviro paper stocks, and holds FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certification, which itself costs over $10,000 to maintain, because we believe that it is important to do more than give lip service to our environment. Our delivery fleet is 4cyl Honda’s and our common area power switches are on timers so they turn off when not needed. It also should be noted that this very website is housed on green energy powered servers (as are all the clients whose environments we host) because that is what we can do, however small it may seem, to support sustainability.

See that giant green logo with the number on it? that is OUR number and we are very proud of it. We don’t hide it behind a generic logo and we certainly don’t shy away from letting our customers know that they have options when they print.

20% recycled, 40? 50? 100%? full 100% FSC certified? Ultimately the choice is yours, but no difference can be made to the world we are moving forward into, or leaving behind, if no one makes an effort, however small, to change it.

If you’d like to find out more information about FSC, please visit them at https://ca.fsc.org/