Paper company Crane & Co. has launched a new swatchbook, Crane Paper, 100% Cotton: The Definitive Collection. This is the world’s greenest paper. No trees or wood fiber go into it because is entirely made of cotton. The swatchbook itself is made from cotton paper as well, and was designed by a C&G Partners team led by Partner Emanuela Frigerio.
UPDATE: This post was originally titled “The World’s Greenest Paper”, hence all the comments below. A title I copied directly from C&G’s blog. This was obviously a misleading/false statement, my apologies.
Crane paper makes me swoon…
Apr 1st, 2009 / 12:28 pm
I’m not sure that 100% cotton equals “world’s greenest paper” — is that a claim that they make? Do they give info on the harvest/production methods, energy inputs, etc?
Apr 1st, 2009 / 2:24 pm
So, yes but no. And I say this having used Crane for many numerous projects… LOVE the stuff.
But cotton takes a lot of pesticides and bleaching to get to where it is…
Wood pulp is the same way, and crane does use all hydraulic energy, so that’s awesome, but I might call it an even draw by the end… or if they are the greenest, it’s not by a heck-of-a-lot.
Apr 1st, 2009 / 3:11 pm
I wonder if this will be better than Lettra?
Apr 1st, 2009 / 3:32 pm
The endless sucking up of the companies to the Green Disease is getting to be highly annoying. One imagines that one can go one better by making an 800 thread count Egyptian cotton paper derived from actual Eqyptian cotton fields so that the exploitation of child labor in the third world could make it just that much more tasty to the preening prigs of the first world.
Apr 1st, 2009 / 3:55 pm
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Apr 1st, 2009 / 3:56 pm
Too bad Cotton is the worst water consuming plant in the world. It’s been responsible for the dying out of several critical lifeline-lakes in the world.
Prime example is the Aral Lake… Can someone check if it’s still there?
The region has been thriving until cotton came. For me cotton is dead. ;-)
Apr 1st, 2009 / 4:09 pm
Cotton is a great tree-free alternative fiber source. The fibers (known as linters) used to produce cotton papers are a by-product of cotton refining. This means that no cotton is grown specifically to make paper.
Apr 1st, 2009 / 4:43 pm
An opportunity for greener-still. “No clothing was killed to make this paper.”
Apr 1st, 2009 / 8:01 pm
There’s no way that’s a legit claim. The pesticides used to grown cotton are the major environmental concern, with conventional cotton being the reason for an estimated 25% (or higher) of the world’s pesticide use. So even if it’s cotton used from mill floors, the damage is already done. Byproducts still carry the impact of the initial product.
Apr 1st, 2009 / 8:44 pm
The cotton industry is one of the heaviest users of pesticides. So before anyone makes such outlandish claims, I’d look at the entire system rather than the end product.
A wonderful example of greenwashing.
Apr 2nd, 2009 / 1:59 am
Cotton paper is OK if it’s made with reclaimed fiber from textile manufacturing operations. If the fiber was produced unsustainably , which is the case with most cotton fiber – the damage has already been done. You may as well use the reclaimed material rather than throw it away because in doing so you displace the need for fiber from some other source.
It’s OK to take a modicum of credit for reclaiming an industrial by-product, but don’t wrap yourselve in a green cloak for doing it.
Apr 2nd, 2009 / 8:44 am
Having a better reputation than wood ecologically doesn’t make cotton “green”.
And as long as the united states subsidise their cotton production it is also ethically questionable.
Apr 2nd, 2009 / 11:12 am
There’s really nothing newly green about Crane Papers; they have always made 100% cotton sheet. Cotton is not greener than trees—it’s far worse for the environment than a sustainably managed forest. Cotton has the highest pesticide/fertilizer use of any crop, thus the worst soil depletion. For truly green paper, use 100% post-consumer content, which is 40% more efficient over the life of the fiber than any other mainstream option available. This is your best option. At the bare minimum, use FSC-certified papers.
Apr 2nd, 2009 / 12:26 pm
Crane’s papers are made from 100% reclaimed cotton using clippings from the textile industry (which it has done for over 200 years) and linters which would otherwise make their way into the solid waste stream. No virgin cotton is used to produce Crane’s papers.
Cotton does not require the chemical processing to remove the large amounts of lignin found in wood fiber and is nearly 100% alpha cellulose which is the building block of paper making. Wood fiber contains around 70% alpha cellulose which means extensive processing and various byproducts not to mention significantly lower yields.
FSC stands for Forrest Stewardship Council, and since Crane Papers are Tree Free, such associations are irrelevant.
Apr 2nd, 2009 / 5:26 pm
Nice work, Dave ^
I, too, am skeptical of this claim. “Green” involves far more than the source of the raw materials, but looking at teh comments already made, it seems like cotton isn’t the place to go for wood alternatives. Then again, people are saying that no virgin cotton is used.
Hrmmmm…. In the words of Edward Tufte, “To clarify, add detail.” A seemingly contradictory statement, but I think at this point we can all agree that “We’re greenest ’cause we don’t use wood,” is not nearly enough information.
I think the problem is a lack of understand of what “Green” really means, and a lack of reliable standards that make the claim easy. We need to educate ourselves as designers, we, as citizens of the world, need to educate our peers and neighbors, and just generally, we need to be more cautious about what we mean when we talk about “Green.”
…blah blah blah…
Apr 3rd, 2009 / 1:09 pm
I got an email from Crane’s media-relations consultant stating that the title of this post was a statement that the design company created that made the packaging for this paper. Crane does not contend that its papers are the world’s greenest. They believe there are very strong environmental attributes to Crane’s papers, but there are no tools to buttress any claim about who makes the greenest paper.
Apr 3rd, 2009 / 3:56 pm
@swissmiss…
Gracias! Sounds like a sound answer from Crane!
Ray
Apr 3rd, 2009 / 4:16 pm
So how do I get a Crane Paper, 100% Cotton: The Definitive Collection Swatch book sent to me? Who do I contact Crane themselves?
12dozen
Jan 24th, 2011 / 4:20 pm