Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Angus
|
We'd like to welcome another new member - little Angus Dutton!
What was supposed to be a routine exam in the middle of the afternoon on the 20th August turned into the birth of a very healthy baby boy! Born at 2.44pm to our very own Office Manager Sara Dutton and husband John Dutton.
Sara left the office for a routine proceedure in the middle of the afternoon with every intention of returning to finish up her last week at work. She had also planned to take a few weeks to organise at home before the scheduled birth date. Little did any of us know, Angus had a different plan - he decided he'd waited long enough!
With a dramatic entrance like this and a name as cool as Angus Dutton, one really has to wonder what big things are ahead for this little guy.
|
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Alice
|
We'd like to welcome our newest member... Alice Ramsay! A healthy, beautiful baby girl.
Born to our very own Senior Designer Jackie Ramsay and her husband Andrew Ramsay, Alice made her appearance at 9.21am on 11 August.
Weighing a very healthy 3.68kg (8lb1oz) and measuring in at 51.5cm she was born ready for the catwalk. Already a seasoned model she completed her very first photoshoot only hours after her birth! Here's the proof.
|
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Hello!
|
Hello and welcome to the Azzopardi & Partners blog. We hope to fill it with useful, informative, interesting and helpful content. Visit us often because we love visitors! You green, I green, we all scream for green green!
We recently asked Bronwen Black from Spicers Paper in Chullora NSW to fill us in on recycled papers. Her answers are more than interesting, so we'd like to share them with you.
1) What is your most environmentally friendly stock (both coated and uncoated)? Are they cost-effective?
It really does depend how deeply you want to go into the environmental issue. Recycled and sustainable are the key words, and if you have a mix of both then you’re doing good things.
In coateds, Monza Recycled has excellent environmental credentials – it is 55% recycled & 45% FSC certified pulp from well managed forest. 9Lives80 is 80% post consumer waste and 20% FSC certified pulp. Monza Recycled is very competive in the A2+ bracket, while 9Lives80 is slightly more.
In uncoateds, Tudor RP is an Australian made offset paper, economical, 100% recycled, and with each tonne we sell, $100 goes to Landcare Australia for help in the rehabilitation of landfill sites and native regeneration around Australia.
To date we have donated around $200,000.00!
2) What makes them so? ie is it the content and/or the processes involved?
There is so much to consider when you are thinking green and it is important to be aware of ‘greenwash’. This is when vague claims are made in order to seem more environmentally friendly, ie this paper is ‘recyclable’. Pretty much every paper in the entire world is recyclable, but when this is included in documents people often take it to mean recycled, which is completely different.
Recycled is excellent, having the right environmental certifications and labels for virgin pulp, the bleaching process (ECF, TCF & PCF which is Process Chlorine Free for recyled content) and using green energy is a newer one.
The latest buzz word is 'Carbon Neutral', but this is very new and difficult to quantify and explain.
It is definitely a good thing to be thinking, but my gut feeling (and it is by no means official) is that there are companies out there cashing in on this new trend in terms of carbon trading and buying carbon credits, and it will be a while until it is more understood and there are officially approved guidelines internationally.
3) Are all your mills eco friendly? Accredited? Use virgin plantation?
We have a mix of recycled and sustainable virgin fibre sheets in our range. Most mills world wide have made every effort to attain accreditations such as ISO14001 which is all about continually updating processes so that they reach worlds best practice.
Others are FSC, PEFC… (check out the Green Guide). There are some that are still struggling with this but they too are endeavouring to bring things into line and our feeling is that if we work with them we can help them achieve this.
Cutting down trees is a very emotive issue for many, but the paper industry is one of the few truly sustainable industries in the world – if you plant a tree it grows. The wood we receive is generally offcuts or that which is not suitable other industries such as furniture making. New growth forest is extremely beneficial in the sequestration of carbon.
4) What should one be looking for in an eco-friendly paper?
The key things are Recycled, sustainable, and the bleaching process.
5) What are the common pitfalls for people choosing eco-friendly paper? ie are all papers which say they are eco-friendly actually so?
As mentioned above, be aware of Greenwash and how things are worded.
6) Can you also list all the various accreditations out there and what they actually mean?
The Green Guide should be in your kit, most are there I think. And there are more recent ones on the website, which also has links to FSC and WWF.
|
|
|