Copy paper... Napkins... Dorm furniture... Building supplies... In addition to being a vital part of campus operations, paper and wood products can play a major role in your campus sustainability efforts. By asking the key decision makers at your university to commit to purchasing responsibly produced wood and paper products, you can help protect the world’s forests and the people, plants and animals that depend on them.

What Makes a Paper or Wood Product “Sustainable”?

Paper or wood product can sourced without causing major habitat destruction, water pollution, the displacement of indigenous peoples or violence against those who work in the forest. Sustainable paper and wood products come from responsibly managed forests and from companies that choose to source raw materials from these forests.

Make sure that the paper or wood products your campus is purchasing are sustainable -- look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label and the Rainforest Alliance seal. Together, they provide a credible link between the responsible production and consumption of forest products, enabling your school to make purchasing decisions that benefit your community and the environment.

What is the Rainforest Alliance Doing?

We’re helping to ensure that forests are conserved and workers are well-treated by...

• Certifying more than 155 million acres (62 million hectares) of forestland to the comprehensive standards of the FSC, the globally-recognized gold standard for responsible forestry.
• Providing tools, guidance and expertise to help companies and universities prioritize responsible purchasing practices -- positively impacting the way that the world’s forests are managed.
• Helping forest-based communities and small- and medium-sized businesses to harvest and process forest products sustainably, and to sell their goods to conscientious consumers in local and global markets.

What You Can Do:

Ask your school for sustainable paper products and building materials!

• Find out who’s in charge of campus purchasing! (Keep in mind, different people will likely be involved in different aspects of campus purchasing -- for example, the person who chooses napkins for the cafeteria may not be the person in charge of ordering campus copy paper.)
• Ask if your school uses FSC-certified paper for printing, certified napkins in its dining halls and certified wood for campus building projects!
• Use our Letter to School Sourcing Officials to ask for certified sustainable paper and wood products on campus! (Remember: You can email the letter to multiple school contacts! It may take a few tries to hit the right contact.)
• Use the Frog on Campus petition to show your administration that students care about sustainable paper and wood products sourcing.
• Join the ‘Frog on Campus’ Facebook page and follow us on Twitter! Use both to spread the word about the Rainforest Alliance and sustainable sourcing on college campuses!

Learn more about our work in sustainable forestry.