Procurement
RRD has a depth of supply-chain expertise, and is a subject matter expert on environmentally preferable products. We believe we are uniquely capable of partnering with our customers to help minimize impact to the environment.
Responsible Forestry Management
RRD provides customers with a variety of supply options that protect forest ecosystem health. The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), Sustainable Forest Initiative® (SFI®) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) all promote well managed forests, reforestation and continuous improvement in standards and practices. In addition, these independent organizations employ guidelines consistent with our sustainability principles to ensure customers of an environmentally sound sourcing process.
RRD pursues chain-of-custody (CoC) certifications from each organization. CoC certification allows companies that manufacture and market forest products to label them with the respective brand. This allows consumers to identify products that provide an assurance of social and environmental responsibility on the part of the producer.
Environmental Specifications
Regulated products and materials (RPM) safety specifications
We have developed comprehensive environmental specifications that are used in contracts with our vendors, suppliers and contractors.
Papers, inks, coatings, adhesives, other raw materials and finished products
The RPM has been created to ensure that all materials purchased and finished products provided by RRD are compliant with applicable environmental requirements in the country of manufacture as well as a number of international regulations including, but not limited to:
- Conflict Minerals
- Consumer Product Safety Information Act (CPSIA)
- Endangered Species Act
- Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS)
- Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)
- Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)
- Toxics in Packaging Clearinghouse (TPCH)
- California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (CA Proposition 65)
- U.S. Lacey Act
As an assembler of these finished materials, RRD also confirms that it does not intentionally add any chemical components to final products supplied to our customers.
These specifications are available for review here.
Product Substitution
We continue to explore ways to substitute more sustainable materials, from using inks with increased vegetable based content to making alcohol replacements in fountain solutions. We also make a range of recycled papers available to our customers.
Enabling Responsible Paper Choices
Customers internationally turn to RRD to provide a broad range of services, including the manufacture of their custom printed products.
We work collaboratively with our customers and present a variety of specific paper and other options to them, but they ultimately determine the design and specifications of their custom products. It is their specifications that we follow as we produce materials. These specifications include their selections regarding the paper's brightness, shade, finish, quality, cost, and all other attributes.
Many people are surprised to learn how active our customers actually are in the paper supply chain. Quite often the paper that we convert into finished printed pieces is supplied to us by customers or arrives as a result of financial arrangements that customers make themselves.
Whether we use paper provided to us or procure it on our customers' behalf, as we collaborate with them, we encourage the use of paper with increased environmental attributes, including where practicable: increased recycled content, forest management certification, and/or processed without chlorine or chlorine compounds.
We also support our customers who wish to exclude fiber from sources by which they determine to be unacceptable. This may include fiber from unwanted sources as defined by forestry certification, including: fiber in violation of internationally accepted instruments and treaties protecting the rights of indigenous or forest-dependent people, high conservation value areas (e.g., areas of old growth and/or endangered forests and endangered species habitat), areas that have been converted from natural forests to plantations and other land uses after November 1994, and plantations using genetically-modified trees.
We make it a practice to offer environmentally-responsible paper to our customers throughout our supply chain. This is possible because we have certified the majority of our print operations to third party forestry management chain of custody (COC) standards:
- Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)
- Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®)
- Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
For a listing of currently certified locations, please view our External Certifications page.
As we serve customers in the United States, we use papers that comply with the Lacey Act. Although the Lacey Act governs papers used in the U.S., it created a groundbreaking precedent: it supports other countries' efforts to responsibly manage their own natural resources. To learn more about the procedures, training, and controls RRD has in place to support compliance with the Lacey Act, please visit: Lacey Act.
Summary/Additional Information
RRD has a long history of responsible use of natural resources. We are committed to the promotion of well managed forests and we frequently review our environmental policies and practices to improve our efforts to encourage sound and sustainable practices on a global level.
We are proud of our commitment to sustainable forest management and highlight this through our Corporate Social Responsibility Report and our Environmental, Health & Safety Policy. These materials share our efforts to continuously improve and to follow practices that endeavor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, develop pollution prevention and recycling opportunities, and use paper, energy and other resources more efficiently.