The three Rs
June 1st 2010

Emma Nourry, trade marketing manager at Georgia- Pacific, discusses the importance of extending sustainability across the business, from reducing wastage in washrooms to improving efficiencies in production

Reduce, reuse and recycle is the mantra for sustainable business at Georgia-Pacific and the key environmental challenge for the cleaning industry in 2010. Green business is big news right now and the recent ISSA Interclean Show in Amsterdam highlighted that, despite the challenges of the economy in recent years, businesses across Europe are still committed to investing in sustainable business practices.

At Georgia-Pacific this extends to continuously improving our performance in three specific areas; continuing to introduce ecodesign into the innovation process, monitoring our manufacturing processes and reducing our environmental impact in terms of waste, water pollution and air emissions.

Our Green by Design initiative, which launched at the fair, focuses on a longstanding philosophy at Georgia-Pacific: Innovation. We provide quality products and dispensing systems that ensure hygiene and comfort. At the core is the company’s commitment to encourage reduction in paper consumption through innovation. Green cleaning is more than good CSR. Our SmartOne dispenser, under our Lotus Professional brand, delivers only one sheet of paper at a time, encouraging end users to reduce their paper consumption and thus any unnecessary wastage in the washroom. Quite simply this demonstrates how easily greener washrooms can be achieved – studies at Georgia-Pacific have shown a reduction in usage of up to 40% compared to jumbo toilet roll.

In controlling the tissue dispensed we can discourage end users from superfluous wastage, making considerable cost savings too. Alongside the financial benefits, the SmartOne toilet tissue dispenser also offers greater hygiene benefits versus other toilet tissue systems as the fully enclosed roll means customers only touch the sheet taken, which reduces the possibility of cross contamination.

A universal responsibility There is a shared responsibility with our customers to promote a more sustainable way of using paper product and increased interest from clients examining products, would suggest that businesses are fast realising the financial and philanthropic benefits to greener cleaning and sustainability.

Reducing wastage and saving money represents clear good business practice. In addition, greener business can also be a vital part of doing business with others; investing in sustainable products and supporting initiatives, is frequently a standard consideration for businesses and organisations choosing a new supplier, selecting a business partner or the competitive edge in a tender situation.

Supporting Sodexo

Sodexo, leading provider of onsite service solutions, is well known across the globe for providing food services and all aspects of facilities management. Georgia-Pacific has worked with the company since 1997, providing solutions for a number of clients such as pharmaceutical companies in its corporate services division as well as key markets in healthcare, education, leisure and hospitality.

Sodexo has a strong environmental and ethical stance; in 2009 Sodexo launched the ‘Better Tomorrow Plan’, a sustainability roadmap to 2020. Integral to this strategy, is its commitment to the environment and ambitions to ‘source and supply sustainable equipment and supplies in all countries’.

Growth in washroom systems at Sodexo has been sustained with product trials and the cost in use calculator*, allowing its clients with the means necessary to demonstrate that green business is good business. And for Georgia-Pacific, this is Green by Design. Savings compared to other Georgia-Pacific generic products.

www.lotusprofessional.co.uk

* Savings compared to other Georgia-Pacific generic products.