And what does that mean? According to this entry on whattheythink.com,

PEFC certification provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

Semper Fi and American Spirit, published by Hammock Inc., are printed at Brown Printing.

This news comes from the Quad website:

(June 17, 2008) Building on its role as a leader in environmentally sound printing practices, Quad/Graphics now has certifications from the world's three leading forest management programs: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

Quad/Graphics was the first national commercial printer to receive chain-of-custody certification from the FSC in 2004 and, now, with the SFI and PEFC certifications, Quad/Graphics vastly expands the pool of forest-certified paper suppliers from which its clients can choose.

"We are proud to receive these key certifications in all 10 of our core printing plants," said Joel Quadracci, President & CEO of Quad/Graphics. "This achievement affirms our efforts to support internationally recognized, science-based standards for best practices in forest management. It also offers important benefits to our customers by opening the door to new, worldwide networks of forest-certified suppliers."

QuadGraphics prints MyBusiness magazine for the National Federation of Independent Business.

As everyone around Hammock Inc. is aware (sometimes painfully), I am passionate about preventing litter. I generate so little trash that I don't have a trash can in my office.

I recently attended a Metro Beautification and Environment Commission retreat. Here are some of the highlights:

Shawn Bible, the Beautification Coordinator for TDOT, was one of our speakers. I learned that TDOT spends over $6 million of taxpayers’ money each year to pick up litter off highways. And the streets are still a mess!

There is going to be a revival of the Adopt-A-Highway program in Tennessee. This is a program where a civic group adopts a couple of miles of highway to clean up three or four times a year. I see a great Team Hammock opportunity here.

Shawn spoke about how billboards are a multimillion dollar business and won’t go away. If you find them annoying, just live with it.

Tennesseans can also apply for grants to beautify highways in the Tennessee Roadscape Program.

Edith W. Heller, our state leader for Keep Tennessee Beautiful, spoke about how KTnB.org is the gold standard among states in the Keep America Beautiful program. Every county in Tennessee participated in the Great American Cleanup last year. No other state had every county participate. Over 25% of the citizens of Tennessee were part of a Great American Cleanup group, too. Around 25% of Hammock Inc. employees participated in an event in May.

From Ms. Heller's talk, I learned that a group is working to reduce the amount of cigarette litter (butts) in downtown Nashville.

The worst litterers are between 18-34 years old. This is a horrible statistic. Luckily, KTnB.org utilizes social media tools to target this group.

After the retreat, I’m encouraged that much is being done with school programs to discourage children from becoming litterers. I learned that there are lots of groups who care and who are working to solve the problem. Unfortunately, I hate that my tax dollars are going to clean up someone else’s trash.

One of the greatest things I learned was that Tennessee passed a litter law last summer, TCA 39-14-5. Officer Kevin Kennett of the Litter Patrol of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, also spoke to us.

The Tennessee litter law is online at www.ktnb.org/educationalresources.

Officer Kennett went over a few highlights of this law:

1. Getting caught tossing a cigarette butt up to five pounds of litter is punishable by a $50 fine and 40-hours of community service.

2. Criminal littering is tossing anything from 5-8 pounds on the roadways. The fines are more.

3. Aggravated criminal littering is 10 pounds or more. And the fines are even more.

I learned that 30% of the litter on our roadways is deliberate littering. Joe Smoo eats lunch in his car and tosses the McDonald’s bag out the window.

Now, 70% of littering comes from trash blowing out of open bed pick ups that over 40% of Tennesseans drive. In Tennessee, “motor vehicle{s}…shall be required to have such materials in an enclosed space or fully covered by a tarpaulin.” Officer Kennett is working with local police officers to make sure that this law is enforced. There is also a law that there must be 4" of clearance in the truck bed. Thus, loose litter must be contained within the back of the truck and covered by a tarp.

While I had first heard of Gruff during the 90s, I had not seen him around the Quad plants whenever I visited. Last spring I learned that Gruff is still around after all these years and is always ready to bleat about recycling.

Barbara: When I’m at Sussex on press checks for MyBusiness magazine, I notice containers for plastic, aluminum, glass and paper. What do you recycle in the corporate offices at Quad?

Gruff: Magazines, catalogs, newspapers, direct mail, cardboard, manila folders, Post-it notes, mail cardboard packaging, copier and all other paper and envelopes. Stuff I like to eat.

Barbara: What else do you recycle in the corporate offices?

Gruff: Toner cartridges from Dell and HP, Styrofoam packing peanuts, CDs, disks and tapes; all kinds of batteries. Stuff that I can’t eat.

Barbara: What about recycling in the printing and manufacturing areas?

Gruff: Quad recycles 98.5% of all solid waste generated in our plants, including paper, plastic strapping, wood, metal and computers. We divert more than 300,000 tons of material away from landfills annually, except for the paper I eat before it’s recycled. Since I’m getting up in goat years, I now mostly eat just the healthy entrees in the cafeteria.

Barbara: Quad runs a 24/7 operation like most printing plants. This must use lots of energy.

Gruff: We’ve reduced energy consumption 36% per printed page since the mid-1990s, saving enough energy to power approximately 21,000 single-family homes. Unfortunately, no one has figured out how many goat barns we could power on Quad’s efficiencies.

Barbara: As the green corporate spokesgoat for a major company, what advice can you give our readers?

Gruff: Long ago, I established these GOLDEN RULES OF RECYCLING for Quad employees:

1. Do not place trash with recyclables.
2. Do not place recyclables in the trash.
3. Do not mix together different types of recyclables unless noted otherwise.

Barbara: Thanks, Gruff, I hope to see you in Sussex soon. I like the button with your logo, Be a Gruff, Recycle Stuff.