The Brown Hill Progress Association has been hand delivering newsletters to residents six times a year since 2016. That’s a lot of behind-the-scenes effort, a lot of writing, and an unbelievable number of volunteer kilometres walked! It’s also a lot of paper. The BHPA has worked hard to get the newsletter onto a sustainable financial footing and has now turned to ensuring it can be environmentally sustainable as well.  It has partnered with Fifteen Trees to plant 180 trees per year to reduce its carbon footprint.

All 180 trees (made up of a mixture of Tree Violets, Messmate Stringybarks, Peppermints, Snow Gum, Candlebark and Manna Gums) were planted by Lulu and Matt and the Education Team at Narmbool, Elaine.

Calculating the footprint of a newsletter isn’t particularly straightforward. There is some simple maths – 2,650 newsletters distributed x 12 pieces of paper in each = 31,800 sheets of paper per edition – and then some more approximate projections. For example, we like to take into account hidden costs like the environmental impact of production and transport per box of paper.

We also encourage any organisations that use paper as part of their workflow to commit to using only ethical paper. This means actively avoiding brands that use native timber for paper or are not transparent about their suppliers. Paper brands to avoid currently include Reflex, Opal and Nippon, all of whom are complicit in destroying habitat, endangering waterways and undermining the fight against climate change. You can find more information about pledging to use ethical paper here https://ethicalpaper.com.au/

The hardworking BHPA association has so much to be proud of. We are thrilled to work with this optimistic, big-hearted group of volunteers to help them make the world a better place.

To find out how we can help you run your newsletter or publication with a small carbon footprint, contact Bianca at <[email protected]>.

Writer – Sarah Hart.

Sarah is an artist whose passions include the stories and experiences of women and narrative driven work. Her aim is to delight, to reveal glimpses of everyday beauty and to celebrate flights of the ordinary. Sarah works across a range of media, with an abiding interest in pen and ink, mixed media and the human form. You can find Sarah here.