Recycled Paper Procurement Campaign
// projects / recycled paper
This project, which seeks to convince administrators to buy recycled paper, takes a good deal of organization and coordination, but the support that the Stanford Procurement Department (contact: Stefani Fukushima stefanif@stanford.edu), the Planning Office (contact: Therese Brekke tbrekke2@stanford.edu) and the Recycling center (contact Julie Muir juliem@pssi.stanford.edu) has made the project much easier. This is an ongoing project. Below is a list of our progression, as of March 2006:
1. I heard about Princeton University's environmental club, which negotiated with a paper manufacturer for a lower price, in return for a mandate that all white paper bought in the school must have post-consumer-waste content (I am a little unsure about the details.) This inspired me to launch a similar campaign in Winter, 2005. I contacted the Procurement office, the Planning office, and Recycling office, and we had regularly scheduled meetings to figure out how we could get Stanford faculty to buy recycled paper. While the procurement department had negotiated a price with Stanford's office supplies distributor for recycled paper that was cheaper than virgin paper, there were a couple of obstacles that we had to overcome:
a. The procurement department was completely opposed to pushing for a mandate, so that option failed.
b. There were around 800 paper purchasers in Stanford, and roughly half were not buying recycled paper, leaving an enormous logistical challenge to contact them all.
c. There were some steryotypes about recycled paper that we had to break, such as the idea that it was inferior, speckled-looking, or would jam copiers, all of which are not true.
2. We organized a lunch forum for paper purchasers. Administrators often go to lunch forums, so we made a powerpoint presentation and scheduled a room to have the forum. The Procurement office coordinated and publicized the forum, and we contacted a speaker to talk about the benefits of recycling paper. It was estimated that 30 administrators came to that forum, and we convinced some to switch to recycled paper. We concluded that future presentations should be shorter, and we had to reach more people to make a big difference.
3. We then decided to contact individual departments that did not buy recycled paper to go to their staff meetings and do 10 minute presentations about why they should buy recycling paper. Members of Students for a Sustainable Stanford would do the presentations. I got a list of all the departments and whether they bought recycled or virgin paper, and trained sustainability members to do those powerpoint presentations. I then gave them certain departments to contact to do presentations. Finally, the Procurement department gave me sample reams of recycled paper, as well as a list of the prices of the different types of recycled papers, and a comparison of how they were cheaper than the other types of paper. Sustainability made sample packets made up of the price sheet, and around 6 different types of recycled paper that were available to buy, with stickers on each paper showing the price and the quality/brand. These sample packets were extremely important because they showed the high quality of the recycled paper, and how they were cheaper. These packets were to be given to the different departments. However, it became apparent that it was very hard to schedule times with departments to do presentations. The campaign was slowing down, and we weren't reaching many departments. We needed to find another way to reach many people with less labor and coordinating on our part.
4. I did a very short campaign where I just emailed administrators buying virgin paper, asking them to buy recycled and that it was cheaper. I sent out many emails, but no one replied.
5. We then took another strategy, which we are currently still working on. Here are the steps:
a. Make many sample packets of recycled paper.
b. Find administrators who are still buying virgin paper.
c. Organize letter-writing parties with sustainability members where we write them hand-written letters:
Dear ,
I'm ______, a member of Students for a Sustainable Stanford, and I am asking you, as a paper purchaser, to consider switching to buying recycled paper. Currently, a majority of Stanford purchasers order recycled paper, saving thousands of trees per year. I have attached samples of recycled paper, and I encourage you to contact me at nutrient@ with your comments. Below are some additional reasons why you should switch.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
d. Staple those hand-written letters to sample packets and then send them to the administrators via intercampus mail (which is free).e. A few days after the packets are sent, email those administrators with this message:
Aloha ,
I'm Emma Yuen, President of Students for a Sustainable Stanford, and last week I sent you a sample packet of recycled paper over intercampus mail. It showed how recycled paper is actually cheaper than virgin paper, and that the quality is the same. I was wondering if you received the packet and if you had any comments, or are thinking of switching to purchasing recycled paper in your next order.
Please respond to this email with your comments. If you are interested, my group can also come to your department to make short presentations about the benefits of recycled paper.
Thank you so much, Emma
If the administrator responds, I email them back thanking them for switching and ask them to pass on the sample packet to another administrator.
Currently, this approach has been very successful—many administrators are pleased to actually see the recycled paper, and this allows us to reach a lot of people without too much coordination.
6. Future plans: Write thank-you letters to the administrators who switched to recycled paper, get an article in the Daily about the project and our success, and organize further to figure out exactly which departments switched because of our efforts. We are still in the stage where we are sending out more sample packets, which we create in biweekly get-togethers where sustainability members write letters and send them out.
This was written by Emma Yuen in March 2006. If you have any questions, or would like to replicate this project in your school, please contact Emma at nutrient@Stanford.edu.