Go Ahead and Sneeze, the Tissue Was Produced with Wind Energy

Well we can all feel good about choosing tissue paper made by Cascades Tissue Group.

Just this week the company doubled their purchase of wind energy for production of their North River towel and tissue line.

By purchasing 20,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of Green-e certified renewable energy credits annually, which is a 182% increase over current levels, the company reduces its indirect carbon emissions by over 43 million pounds.

What does that mean relative to how many cars would be taken off the road (our usual measure)? That number is 3,745 cars.

The North River brand is made of 100% recycled paper. And if you were to purchase 100 cases (22 pounds net weight) you would save 19 trees, 4,415 pounds of landfill waste, energy from a 100W bulb for six years, 1,918 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and almost 18,000 gallons of water.

The parent company, Cascades, Inc. also is careful about their materials. In 2009 they used 2.1 million short tons of recycled fiber in 2009, helping to preserve over 35 million trees. It reuses each drop of water up to 40 times, using 80% less water than the North American industry average, according to the company.

And this is especially important since the paper industry is the fourth largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among U.S. manufacturing sectors, according to the DOE.

The company also has created 26 separate energy efficiency projects in 2009 amongst its plants using a special energy investment fund created five years ago. The initiatives saved over 1% of the company’s total energy consumption, or 283,000 gigajoules.