Dead Tree Edition

Monday, June 25, 2012

Mr. Tree Gets the Axe

After two years in the #43 slot, D. Eadward Tree, the writer of this blog, has been pruned from The RISI Top 50 Power List of the most influential people in the global pulp and paper industry.

The respected paper-industry publisher came out with its new list today, and I wasn't on it. I had to make way for the likes of Greece ("Tell me more, tell me more"), Starbucks, the iPad3, and a bunch of people who actually work in the pulp and paper industry. The good news is that the founder of TwoSides made the list, while Toshiba did not.

RISI had previously honored me primarily for Dead Tree Edition's coverage of the black liquor tax credits, a boondoggle that allowed U.S. pulp manufacturers to hijack a federal biofuel program.

But, as I pointed out last year in objecting to my repeat appearance on the list, my many articles on the subject (51 and counting) have actually changed nothing. The pulp companies collected their billions of dollars from the original black liquor tax credits, are still cashing in on Son of Black Liquor, and still haven't figured out how whether the income is taxable.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

9 Lessons From Toshiba's No-Print Day Debacle

Was it the negative feedback from printing-industry customers?

Or maybe seeing its "#noprintday" hashtag taken over by critics who screamed "Greenwash!"?

Or perhaps it flinched when the industry it attacked held up the mirror to its own questionable environmental record. (As the old cheer goes, "U-G-L-Y, You ain't got not alibi. You're ug-LY!")

For whatever reason, a U.S. arm of Toshiba pulled the plug today on its National No-Print Day campaign. Michael Makin, President and CEO of Printing Industries of America, announced the news this morning after a conversation last night with a Toshiba executive.

A few hours later, Toshiba's "Tree" spokescharacter got the axe; his video and web site were disabled. (Disclosure: Mr. Tree is no relation to D. Eadward Tree, the writer of this blog. I wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot branch.)

But let's not celebrate too much before absorbing some lessons from this saga:

We print lovers are still doing a crappy job getting the word out about how printing and paper usage are not necessarily bad for the environment. How many people do you suppose were involved in conceiving and approving of the No-Print Day campaign? (The main Toshiba web site linked to the campaign for the first few days, so the effort wasn't confined to some obscure corner of the organization.) Apparently not one of them questioned whether the campaign would actually help the environment or realized the effort would create a fact-based backlash.

Greenpeace Sticks It To Toshiba: Company Has No Paper Policy

Update: Toshiba pulled the plug on its campaign the day after this article appeared. See 9 Lessons from Toshiba's No-Print Day Debacle for the full story.

Toshiba's misleading "No-Print Day" campaign may be an attempt to distract us from the company's dismal environmental record.

Greenpeace ranks the company tied for #13, out of 15 major manufacturers, in the latest edition of its annual Guide to Greener Electronics.

Toshiba's score of only 2.8 on a scale of 10 is actually an improvement over the previous year, when Greenpeace penalized it for backtracking on a previous commitment to remove certain hazardous materials from its PCs -- and lying about it.

But here's the kicker: The Greenpeace report says Toshiba "fails to score on paper sourcing as it does not have a paper procurement policy which excludes suppliers that are involved in deforestation and illegal logging."

Hurry It Up, Key Senator Tells Postal Regulatory Commission

Chastizing the Postal Regulatory Commission for taking 12 months to issue an opinion on ending Saturday delivery, Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) is asking the panel to work faster on other proposals to streamline the U.S. Postal Service.

"At a time when the Postal Service is reporting losses of$25 million a day and is doing all it can to head off financial collapse, there is a clear need for postal management to take a number of steps to streamline operations and adjust the Postal Service's network and product offerings to reflect the changing demand for hard-copy mail," Carper wrote in a letter dated yesterday.

Carper, co-sponsor of the Senate's main postal-reform legislation, said the PRC's advisory opinions "have been of great value to the Postal Service, Congress, and postal customers." But he expressed concern about the "lengthy, courtroom-style process" the commission has used in developing such reports.

The PRC's split decision on five-day delivery "suffered from a lack of focus on the key issues that I believe needed examination during the debate about moving to five-day service," Carper wrote. He recommended that the panel set time limits on its consideration of USPS's proposed changes to service levels.

A drawn-out process for considering such changes would "run the risk that the Postal Service could be forced to act on its proposal before the Commission has had a chance to share its thoughts and findings," Carper wrote. That could result in USPS making "serious mistakes in implementing a service change that might have been avoided had postal managers had the benefit of the Commission's counsel."

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