New magazine Eco Kit launches today

The new version of the Magazine Eco Kit is to be unveiled by the Canadian magazine industry and Markets Initiative today (June 4) at 5:15pm during the at the Order of the Forest Awards, held at MagNet, Canada’s Magazine Conference. It's part of a major commitment to build demand from publishers to encourage printers to offer papers with high-recycled content, free of ancient forest fibre and made without harmful bleaching.

The Magazine Eco Kit [says a release] offers a collection of ideas and best practices to help publishers make viable choices for a greener, more sustainable publishing industry. The goal of the Eco Kit is to lead all stakeholders—from paper manufacturers to publishers to printers—towards the development, supply and use of new environmentally friendly papers that meet industry quality, price and supply expectations

The kit was printed by Dollco Printing on an experimental new paper comprised of 20% wheat straw, 40% post-consumer recycled fibre and 40% completely chlorine-free virgin wood fibre.

The “Wheat Sheet,” considered by many to have been an impossibility, is a landmark in North American paper production: it’s the first glossy, light weight coated magazine paper made with wheat straw in North America. The wheat sheet took more than four years to produce and is the result of a partnership between Canadian Geographic, Markets Initiative, Alberta Research Council, Dollco Printing and a major North American paper mill.

The June 2008 edition of Canadian Geographic was the first magazine to be printed on this paper.

The Eco Kit is also available for downloading in PDF format, from the following sites:
• Magazines Canada (www.magazinescanada.ca)
• Markets Initiative (www.marketinitiative.org)

The Eco Kit project is supported by Magazines Canada, British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers, Markets Initative, Alberta Magazine Publishers Association, Manitoba Magazine Publishers Association Magazines Ontario,Magazines du Québec and the Atlantic Magazines Association.