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Responsible Paper Procurement
Sprint recognizes the significance of paper and printing to many of our business operations – from direct marketing and customer invoicing to information sharing and reporting. We also understand that paper production is a resource-intensive endeavor that depends heavily on forests, water and energy. Unchecked demand and mismanagement of these resources can have an effect on the climate, on biodiversity, and on the health and well-being of communities.
In 2009, Sprint established a Paper Leadership Council comprised of the key business units driving paper purchases within the company. The council includes: Marketing Communications (for post-paid and pre-paid brands), IT Care & Billing Services, Real Estate, Retail Operations, Supply Chain, and Corporate Responsibility. Its mission is to set guidance for responsible procurement of printing paper and print services.
The council’s initial step was to develop a baseline for how much paper the company purchased. It determined that in 2007, Sprint bought 25,444 metric tons of printing paper. Stacked in a single column, that would be enough 8.5” x 11” sheets of copy paper to reach the International Space Station more than four times. With such large demand, the council’s first goal was to reduce the amount of printing paper purchased. Since 2007, Sprint has achieved a 64.6% reduction in its annual paper purchases, through a variety of reduction strategies and saved a cumulative, estimated total of $64 million dollars.
Recognizing that paper is a multi-faceted issue, the council went on to establish a Paper & Print Procurement Policy. Initially published in the fall of 2010 and last updated in December of 2011, the policy went beyond setting guidance for how much printing paper Sprint procures. It also addresses where the paper comes from, what it’s made of, how it’s produced, and how it’s printed. Sprint’s Paper & Print Procurement Policy outlines our commitments, focus areas and goals, which are summarized below. Our performance against these commitments and goals is also provided.
Commitments
- Support sustainable forest management
- Work with environmentally and socially responsible suppliers
- Purchase paper with more recycled content
- Optimize Sprint’s paper use
Additional Focus Areas
- Avoid knowingly purchasing paper from illegally harvested or stolen wood or that comes from ancient, endangered, high conservation value, or controversial forests
- Work with suppliers and stakeholders to explore and encourage development of low-environmental-impact and commercially viable sources of paper fiber, such as agricultural residues
- All other decision factors equal, give purchasing preference to paper products that are processed total chlorine-free
Goals & Performance
- FSC-certified Paper Goal: At least 90% of the printing paper Sprint purchases will be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified from North American forests and supplied by U.S.-based companies by year-end 2012, and 100% by year-end 2017.
Performance – In 2011, 70% of the paper Sprint purchased met this criterion, up 11 percentage points from 2010. This was achieved by shifting customer invoice forms and remit envelopes to FSC-certified paper, on top of the paper Sprint’s Marketing and Real Estate teams were already purchasing with that designation. In May of 2012, Sprint’s outer envelopes, used to send the invoices, were shifted to FSC-certified paper with the full roll-out of its new ecoEnvelope™ solution for customer invoices. With that change, Sprint expects to reach the 90% goal in 2012. (For clarification, SFI-certified paper remains an option in Sprint's purchasing portfolio, if FSC market supplies tighten.)
- Supplier Compliance Goal: At least 50% of Sprint’s paper and print suppliers will comply with Sprint’s environmental and social criteria by year-end 2012, and at least 90% will comply by year-end 2017. Percentages are based on Sprint’s spend with suppliers.
Performance – In 2011, because Sprint’s Paper Leadership Council was evaluating potential criteria and had yet to set expectations for its suppliers, no percent of compliance was available. Those benchmarks have now been established. In the spring of 2012, Sprint shared with its printers the criteria it will use to evaluate their environmental performance. The criteria include such things as whether printers are tracking and reporting their greenhouse gas emissions, have targets for recycling waste paper and inks, are achieving target levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the chemicals they use, and have identified hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the workplace. Sprint has also set expectations for its paper suppliers. Each needs to provide details on the products they sell to Sprint - the bleaching process, forest of origin and specific tenure/ ownership, tree species/ logging rotation/ year of previous harvest, pulping efficiency, and certification/third party verification. Sprint anticipates at least 50% of its paper and print suppliers, by spend, will comply with their respective criteria by year-end 2012.
- Recycled Content Goal: Total weight of the printing paper Sprint purchases annually will contain a minimum of 10% post-consumer waste (PCW) by year-end 2012, and a minimum of 25% PCW by year-end 2017.
Performance – In 2011, Sprint’s use of recycled content remained constant. As in 2010, the total printing paper Sprint purchased contained 6% PCW by weight. That contribution comes from the 30% PCW copy paper Real Estate procures for the company, and the 10% PCW associated with pieces printed by Marketing (retail point-of-presence materials and collateral, direct mail, etc.). Looking ahead, Marketing has developed a six-year plan to increase its PCW from 10% to 30% by 2017. In addition, IT Care & Billing Services is evaluating opportunities to increase PCW in customer invoice forms. Based on these plans, we expect Sprint to meet its goal of 10% PCW by year-end 2012.
- Paper Reduction Goal: Total weight of the printing paper Sprint purchases annually will be reduced at least 30% by year-end 2012, and at least 40% by year-end 2017 (based on a 2007 baseline).
Performance – In 2011, Sprint achieved a 64.6% reduction in paper purchased from its 2007 baseline. This exceeded its 2017 goal, and was more than a 21 percentage point improvement over 2010. Paper purchases decreased for all business units within Sprint. The most significant year-over-year reduction (49%) was in Marketing as the level of retail collateral and direct marketing required for the year was optimized. Paper purchases by IT Care & Billing Services dropped 17% based on increased paperless billing adoption (30% of customer accounts had converted to this option by year-end 2011) and a transition to more streamlined billing formats. Real Estate’s 14% reduction was due to further optimization and removal of office printing devices and use of paperless office tools. In anticipation of the company’s continued growth, Sprint’s Paper Leadership Council plans to retain the current 40% reduction goal for 2017 and to continue to hold paper purchases at that level or better moving forward.
EcoEnvelope™
The first two-way mailer for telecom invoices
Sprint is helping to change the face of customer invoicing and direct mail with an inventive two-in-one reusable envelope. The new ecoEnvelope™ allows customers to receive and remit payment using the same envelope — making bill payment easier, minimizing mail costs, reducing paper use and lowering the mailing’s environmental impact.
Sprint is the first wireless carrier and only one of a few select retailers, to offer the ecoEnvelope to their customers. By the end of 2012, 30 percent of Sprint accounts were using a paperless billing option. However, many customers remain more comfortable receiving a paper invoice. Using the ecoEnvelope means these valued customers will continue to receive the convenience of a paper bill, while conserving resources.
According to the Federal Network on Sustainability, the U.S. pulp and paper industry is the second largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry. The new ecoEnvelope, which was fully deployed in May of 2012, helps Sprint and its customers reduce paper waste and conserve natural resources. In just over a year, Sprint estimates the new envelope format will save more than a half million dollars in operational costs and the equivalent* of:
- 447 tons of paper
- 1,669 tons of wood, or 11,565 trees
- 9,931,834 gallons of water, or 15 Olympic swimming pools
- 859,047 pounds of solid waste, or 31 loaded garbage trucks
- 2,692,185 pounds of CO2e, or 244 cars off the road/year
* Equivalencies courtesy of the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator
Check out this video to learn more about Sprint’s new ecoEnvelope and see how it works.
Sprint University
Saving paper and money with non-traditional training solutions
Sprint encourages each of its business units to examine the environmental impact of their operations and to consider opportunities for improvement. Sprint University, which is seated within the company’s Human Resources department, illustrates how a highly motivated team tapped into their staff’s passion for “going green” and managed to benefit the environment and Sprint’s bottom line.
Sprint University delivers training and professional development to thousands of new and existing Sprint employees each year. Knowing how reliant their team was on paper-based curriculum, they began a Green Materials Management initiative in 2011. Their goal is to eventually achieve a 90 percent reduction in spend on printed training course material based on the class materials budget set in 2010. A working committee was established, comprised of several Sprint University staff members. They worked with the Field Operations, Training Development, Delivery, and Scheduling teams and Sprint’s materials management vendor to evaluate and implement solutions that would reduce the volume of printed course material Sprint required.
By year-end 2011, the committee was well on its way to achieving the goal — netting a nearly 45% reduction in spend. Some of the solutions implemented included converting printed course material to eBooks, which allow students to highlight key learnings, maintain notes, and store the content online for on-the-job reference. In addition, other solutions to decrease print included converting to online content, enhancing courses so instructors could use an online learning environment instead of paper to display documents and facilitate activities, and reusing existing Sales New Hire participant guides in specified locations. Sprint University also worked with its materials management vendor to evaluate and optimize its existing inventory of printed course material. This exercise helped eliminate any deactivated course material and reduced the monthly inventory carrying costs more than 10-fold.
Sprint & Canopy
Collaborating for Conservation
As a large consumer of paper for marketing materials, customer invoices and its daily operations, Sprint has a vested interest in learning more about the paper industry and its impact on the environment. In addition to open dialogue with its paper suppliers, Sprint sought to build a relationship with a business-savvy, environmental NGO — one that could provide awareness, understanding and guidance regarding forestry issues.
A Sprint print vendor, who has demonstrated exceptional environmental leadership, referred Sprint to not-for-profit Canopy. Canopy specializes in collaborating with large-scale forest product customers to help ensure sustainable supply chains. Since connecting in the spring of 2011, Sprint has found great value in its partnership with Canopy.
Canopy’s initial work with Sprint was providing input to pending revisions of Sprint’s Paper & Print Procurement Policy. Canopy encouraged Sprint to strengthen its language and scope in the policy in regard to avoiding the purchase of paper from illegally harvested wood and endangered forests. Further, Canopy advocated for an increase in Sprint’s existing goal for post-consumer waste content. Lastly, Canopy offered to help Sprint conduct a supplier assessment using Paper Chain of Custody forms. This would enable Sprint to identify whether any of its paper products may contain inputs from endangered forests and/or other controversial sources.
As the relationship grew, Canopy continued to provide education and counsel to Sprint’s Paper Leadership Council (PLC). The PLC is a cross-functional team comprised of key paper purchasers and stakeholders within Sprint. It sets guidance for responsible procurement of paper and print services within the company. Members include: Marketing (Post & Pre-paid), IT Care & Billing Services, Real Estate, Retail Operations, Supply Chain, and Corporate Responsibility. While the PLC engages with many stakeholders, Canopy in particular has enriched its understanding of the:
- Additional support for our paper reduction goals and targets
- Significance of paper pulp bleaching methodologies and their impact to the environment
- Feasibility of alternative fiber sources such as the agricultural residue from wheat and flax crop production
- Benefits of post-consumer waste fiber in driving down water, energy and chemical usage
- Key differences between the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) chain-of-custody paper certification programs
- Importance of understanding where pulp is sourced
- Ecopaper Database and other paper evaluation tools to aid paper buyers with their sourcing decisions
- Global conservation initiatives like the Great Bear Rainforest and Boreal Agreements and their potential to secure lasting forest production and certainty of eco-friendly paper supplies
In May of 2012, Canopy presented the results of its initial Paper Chain of Custody research on Sprint’s behalf. Sprint is now sharing the results with its paper suppliers and determining next steps. As Sprint works with its suppliers to build a more sustainable supply chain, Canopy’s guidance will continue to be a welcome and valuable source of input.
2012 Printer Summit
Enabling vendors to increase sustainability
As Sprint works to improve the environmental sustainability of its operations, it recognizes that this is not a path upon which any company embarks alone. This is a shared journey — one that requires the engagement of many parties, including suppliers. With that in mind, Sprint hosted its first-ever Printer Summit in May 2012. The purpose of the summit was to acquaint Sprint’s print suppliers with the criteria that Sprint will begin using to evaluate the environmental impact of their operations and equip them with resources that would enable them to meet the criteria.
This shared journey toward greater environmental stewardship began in earnest at the beginning of 2012. At that time, Sprint surveyed the more than a dozen printers who produce its marketing materials, customer invoicing forms and envelopes, and documents for internal operations. The purpose was to establish an environmental baseline of the printers’ current operations. Sprint’s Paper Leadership Council then used the baseline information to develop the performance criteria for our goal to have at least 50% of Sprint’s print suppliers to comply with Sprint’s environmental and social criteria by year-end 2012, and at least 90% to comply by year-end 2017.
The performance goals were established collaboratively with Sprint’s primary printers to ensure they were feasible. The final criteria include expectations for printers to track and report their greenhouse gas emissions, to achieve targets for recycling waste paper and inks, to attain target levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the chemicals they use, and to identify hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the workplace.
For some suppliers, this set of criteria represented their first exposure to these aspects of their business. Sprint recognized the need to offer the guidance and resources necessary to enable their success. Each of Sprint’s printers received the environmental criteria, a set of free tools for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, and an invitation to attend an upcoming Printer Summit to be held at Sprint’s headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas. All of the suppliers accepted Sprint’s invitation to attend. The half-day format of the summit included an overview of following, plus lunch and dialogue:
- Sprint’s environmental priorities and goals
- The Paper Leadership Council, its mission, and Sprint’s Paper & Print Procurement Policy
- Key forestry issues and opportunities to improve the sustainability of paper sourcing from Canopy — a respected environmental not-for-profit that specializes in helping forest product customers to ensure sustainable supply chains
- How to improve environmental quality of printing operations and the bottom line from EEM Sustainable Management — a consulting firm that helped TC Transcontinental, the 4th largest printer in North America, become an industry leader in environmental sustainability
- Sprint’s new criteria for evaluating the environmental performance of its printers
Sprint believes that education is an essential ingredient in achieving supplier engagement and ultimately collaboration toward our shared vision. This summit was the first in what Sprint hopes will be a series of future discussions on how to positively shape printing operations and the industry with our valued print partners.