Urban Ecoist

It is that time of year when the little kiddies are sent off to school, and that means that parents are buying the usual pencils, paper, crayons, markers, rulers, etc. But are you aware of where some of those supplies come from companies with very different ways of looking at the world? Let’s look at pencils today.

What a better way to discuss a renewable resource like wood with kids than by teaching them about something so ubiquitous as that ol’ number 2? First of all, what kind of wood is used in pencils, and where does that wood come from? Forest Ethics has just released a report card for pencil companies, and which pencil you purchase can make a difference.

Most pencils are made from soft woods such as cedar, and a large amount of cedar is found on the West Coast of the US. Some pencil companies are definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to working with sustainably harvested wood to make their pencils. Two good choices for pencils are ForestChoice, from CalCedar, and Greenline Paper Company’s Eco-Writer. ForestChoice uses Incense-Cedar from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests, which has ten principles and fifty-six criteria for determining the environmental impact of the wood harvested from certain forests. The Eco-Writer pencil is made from recycled materials, and attempts to avoid using wood at all.

Some pencils to avoid for being less envir-aware are the Green Apple line of pencils from Red Apple School Supplies. Though the Green Apple’s are made from recycled cedar, it is not clear where that cedar is coming from in the first place. Also, the pencils are made in Japan, so the shipping involved may undermine whatever benefits the pencil offers. Another less-than-awesome choice is Papermate’s Earthwrite pencil line. True, the Earthwrite’s are made from recycled or reclaimed wood, but that wood may be coming from forests that are clear-cut out of the Sierra Nevada, which are under threat. Although Earthwrite does use some FSC-certified wood, it is not clear if all the wood is sustainably-harvested.

A couple of companies to avoid altogether include the pencil giant, Dixon/Ticonderoga. This company did at one time offer pencils made with FSC wood, but no longer. I say we start emailing them and bugging them to make this a priority, or simply stop buying the D/T pencils and maybe they will get the message. Another “evil-doing” (Sorry, I watched Bowling For Columbine last night, and George Bush’s favorite term is my new fav, too) company is USA Gold. I just checked out the Mega Brands website (the USA Gold parent company), and it lists the USA Gold pencil as “are made from sustained yield cedar.” However, ForestEthics gives USA Gold an “F” for using wood from Sierra Pacific Industries, which ForestEthics calls out for using wood from non FSC-certified forests.

In all fairness, I did pop by Sierra Pacific Industries website to see how they deal with the whole sustainable forests issue. SPI says that it is a voluntary partner in the Sustainable Forest Initiative, which they say is similar to FSC. If you want to read a bit more about this he said, she said bullsh*t, you can read this San Francisco Chronicle article from earlier this year. It does seem that there is some debate as to what constitutes sustainable forestry. Perhaps I will revisit this another day.

ForestEthics, sustainable forestry, pencils, back to school shopping, ForestChoice, CalCedar, Greenline Paper Company, Eco-writer, Forest Stewardship Council, FSC, Green Apple, Red Apple School Supplies, Papermate, Earthwrite, Sierra Nevada, Dixon/Ticonderoga, USA Gold, Mega Brands, Sustainable Forest Initiative, SFI, Sierra Pacific Industries, SPI