Time To Panic?

Well, this is only my second post, and to be honest, I’m already a little short on ideas to blog about this time around. I really have been racking my brain trying to figure out something to say that people might look at and say, “Dang, this guy really gave me some inspiration this week.” Unfortunately, I don’t have any great words of wisdom this week. Although I was presented with a perplexing notion earlier this week, when I was told “Manage your time well, you’ve got some other stuff coming in.” As I thought about it, really, isn’t that what doing your job is all about, time management? But, even more perplexing to me, was the fact that a request to manage my time came in, yet, with the workflow we had coming in, it was something that was very difficult to do.

 Essentially, I understood the request at the basic level. Make sure you have all your Ps & Qs in order before this other project hits the frying pan. That’s all fine and dandy, but in our business, spot fires are always popping up here and there. There’s no guarantee that because this fire was put out immediately, that another one isn’t going to pop up just a few minutes down the line. Which essentially is the purpose of managing your time. There is no guarantee that a project will run smoothly, so get ready for the next fire. In the end I guess, it’s a matter of doing what you can to complete one project, while staying focused to adjust and meet the obligations of other items that might come into the mix that day. 

How do you do that? Well, to be honest, your guess is as good as mine. Simply put, I guess it’s like that life old adage of Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Or in this case, seize the moment. Grab what’s at hand and run with it. Sometimes a curve or two may come your way. Stay calm. It’s not life and death, it is only work. As simple as that may sound, it’s true. You really can only do your best work when you are calm and focused. It really doesn’t help anyone to get into a panic.

 I didn’t mean this to be a pep talk or a clichéd version of a blog entry. It’s more of a reflection on the way my week has progressed thus far. In a way, it’s a wake up call for me to realize that getting hot under the collar is probably only going to start another fire rather than put out the ones that already exist.  –David

Thinking Green

Hello,

Kristen here, first blog, hopefully the first of many…

Recycled paper: do you understand what you are buying?

Recently I have been involved with researching the many facets of recycled papers to assist our clients in understanding what icons are associated with recycled paper and what each icon means. With just a little research, I was astounded to find out the range of products that are on the market and that in some cases “recycled paper” didn’t mean what I thought it meant.

With so much talk about being “Green” these days, many companies are turning towards recycled papers as one way to help the environment and possibly their bottom line. The question is, do the companies really know what they are buying? When you decide to start buying and printing on recycled papers, you really need to do some research or you might not be getting what you think.

Part of the issue is that “recycled” is a very loose term. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) controls the standards on what is and isn’t considered recycled. But the standards are so broad that a paper with a recycled logo can literally mean that a paper is being made from paper scraps left over from the paper making process. So ultimately you are buying paper with no post-consumer waste that offers little relief to the environment.

If recycled papers is your route, a better option is to look for post-consumer waste recycled or PCW labels, the higher the percentage of PCW the better. 100% PCW means that the paper pulp is derived from all post-consumer waste, no virgin forests are logged for this paper. Another option is to consider the way the paper is whitened. According to The Green Guide, processed chlorine-free or PCF is a better choice than totally chlorine-free or TCF. PCF is required to use at least 30% PCW and is a safer process than TCF. TCF can be used on virgin forest pulp and therefore is not as good of an option.

Another route altogether is to use tree-free papers, which come from agricultural refuse, bamboo, hemp, kenaf and non-tree fibers. The tree-free papers use an alternate source of pulp, rather than logging virgin forests, therefore they don’t reuse post-consumer waste. So they are a good alternative from non-recycled papers.

When you do a little research you start to see all of the options that are available. There is FSC Certified paper that follows a “chain-of custody” from a FSC-certified forest, to the paper manufacturer, merchant and finally the printer and Green Seal certification which is a third party that certifies environmentally friendly products. I think the ultimate goal is to reuse as much post-consumer waste as possible to save our landfills AND to use as little as possible of virgin forest to save the environment. Think about this the next time you look for recycled paper.