Xerox no longer buys paper products from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a Singapore-based paper giant under fire for its forest management practices in Indonesia, according to a statement published on the company’s official blog late last week.
Xerox made the announcement in response to a Greenpeace investigation that linked APP to illegal harvesting of ramin, a protected tree species.
“We do not currently source from AP&P, and there are no Xerox products in the marketplace coming from AP&P,” wrote Karen Arena, vice president of global PR for Xerox, in a blog post. “While at one time AP&P was a Xerox supplier, our corporate direction has been to cease doing business with AP&P on a global basis.”
 The Ramin Paper Trail |
“This direction was put in place years ago and is based on our stringent paper sourcing guidelines. We have since been working with our local operations in countries around the world to ensure that all paper suppliers for Xerox products must comply with our sustainability standards and that we’re terminating relationships with suppliers like AP&P that do not meet our standards.”
Greenpeace’s report said that Xerox sourced product from APP’s Indah Kiat mill in Sumatra for its Astro copy paper sold in Greece through mid-2011.
Xerox could not be reached for comment on the specific allegation within Greenpeace’s report.
Environmentalists and scientists have criticized APP for its continued reliance on natural forests for pulp and paper production. The paper giant has missed three targets for phasing out rainforest fiber from its supply chain.
EDITOR’S NOTE: On March 28, 2012, Xerox confirmed that it did indeed buy paper from APP in 2011, as claimed by Greenpeace in its report:
-
We have completed a thorough evaluation of Xerox entities around the world. While we have confirmed that no Xerox branded products have been sourced from AP&P since implementing our ban in 2002, we have uncovered that a Xerox European entity bought and resold AP&P branded paper as recently as 2011. This was against the company’s purchasing protocols. The activity has since ceased, corrective actions have been taken, and we are reinforcing our policy — banning any purchase of paper from AP&P. We appreciate that this violation of policy was brought to our attention by GreenPeace, and hope that, in the future, the group will contact us directly when they uncover discrepancies to our stringent paper sourcing policy.
Related articles