I had a conference call two weeks ago with two representatives of non-profit environmental organizations interested in working with AAN. Shiloh Bouvette is the newspaper campaigner for Canopy, a Canadian organization focused on driving “North American demand for green paper products by shifting heavy paper consuming sectors away from unsustainable sources.” And Shannon Binns is program manager/newspaper sector of the Green Press Initiative, an American non-profit that works with “book and newspaper industry stakeholders to conserve natural resources, preserve endangered forests, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize impacts on indigenous communities.”

They told me a little about their organizations and the kinds of publishing-industry programs they have organized in the past. I explained to them that it was my general sense that AAN papers were pretty eco-friendly in their newsprint policies. But I didn’t know that for a fact so we agreed that an appropriate first step would be to survey AAN members to take their temperature on the issue. Shiloh and Shannon promised to provide us with a survey to distribute shortly.

Thanks to next year’s convention hosts NOW Magazine for putting me in touch with Shiloh to get the ball rolling.