Ithaca College

Beginning in early Fall, all College letterhead will be printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Working closely in partnership with one of the College’s major suppliers, Unisource, and paper manufacturer Fox River Paper Company, Wayne French, supervisor of Printing Services, reports that this new totally recycled-content paper - which will be equal in performance and appearance to the current letterhead stock - will be made available to our campus community at no additional cost.

Replacing the current College seal watermark, our new letterhead paper will feature two watermarks: the Ithaca logo and the chasing arrows “recycling” image with the words 100% Post Consumer underneath. This subtle change, imbedded in the documents used to correspond with members of our campus community, further strengthens the message of our campus commitment to sustainability.

The selection of Fox River Paper Company to produce this new letterhead paper also represents the College’s ongoing commitment to “greening” our supply chain. Fox River Paper Co. is a leader in sustainable manufacturing within their industry, incorporating a number of important sustainable manufacturing processes. Fox River only purchases raw materials from responsible foresters: all their virgin and recycled paper pulp is acquired from either suppliers certified as utilizing sustainable practices by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or from suppliers qualified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). The post-consumer waste that Fox River purchases to produce their recycled-content paper is processed using Process Chlorine Free bleaching techniques to make the pulp brighter; PCF processing uses chemicals like ozone, oxygen and hydrogen peroxide instead of chlorine bleaching agents, eliminating the production of harmful dioxins. Use of recycled pulp also requires less bleaching, which generates fewer emissions. Paper manufacturing is a highly water-intensive process; it is estimated that the use of recycled pulp requires 42% less water than virgin pulp. Fox River Paper’s Housatonic plant draws all of its water from artesian wells, and it also reuses as much of its processing water as possible, putting less pressure on river ecosystems, and it treats all its wastewater effluent before discharging it into municipal water systems. The EPA reports that production of recycled-content paper saves up to 64% of energy costs over virgin paper production. In addition, the Fox River plant in Appleton WI, where our college letterhead will be produced, is 25% powered by hydroelectric power.

Please plan to exhaust all your existing stocks of paper before placing orders for this new letterhead recycled content paper.