Government
Purchasing - not! 
In the Spring of 2001, in response to Executive Order 13101, the
Washington, D.C. based Environmental Technology Evaluation Center (EvTec)
announced a project to reduce the environmental impacts of paper
manufacturing and consumption while maintaining or improving product
quality and cost effectiveness. The project's intent was to identify
emerging practices and barriers to innovation within the paper industry.
With the sponsorship of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing group, the
Business comes first in Washington,
and lately, business has been good to the
good old boys.
project was viewed (by us) as an excellent opportunity
for kenaf paper to finally get some government purchasing recognition as
the innovative and beneficial product that it is, an environmentally
preferable, biobased product.
However, another snag was found when, in July of 2001, the Departments of
Agriculture and Energy, who are charged under EO 13101 with identifying
biobased products, responded to a congressional inquiry by reporting that
"they could not reach consensus" on how to value the environmental
attributes of various products, paper included.
Then EvTec backed off, saying, "The EPA EPP team made a decision to revise
the work plan considering the hurdles in implementing the paper project,
i.e. reaching consensus on the criteria and methods of evaluating paper
considering the wide and diverse range of stakeholders and zeroing in on
the type of paper products (office paper, newsprint, etc.) to evaluate."
The need to reach consensus is a typical Washington desire. Unfortunately,
large existing industry groups form the bulk of what Washington operatives
consider the stakeholders. They lobby hard for inaction, because change of
any kind is viewed as harmful to their businesses. Business comes first in
Washington, and lately, business has been good to the good old boys. |
|
Brandon Davis
Serious Sales at
Vision Paper
Brandon Davis - Sales and Marketing
Brandon will do (almost)
anything in order to help you use
our kenaf paper for your top-level printing project. Brandon is a
1999 graduate of Penn State
University, home of Nittany
Lions. Prior to moving to
Albuquerque, he hiked the
Appalachian Trail From Georgia
to Maine, (where he met Monica)
and read David Browers's book,
"Let the Mountains Talk,
Let the Rivers Run." He is
strongly dominated by a burning
desire to work at something
positive that would help preserve
the environment. He found the
right spot here at Vision Paper.
Give him a call for current
samples and information.
 |