Efficiency in the use of water, raw materials and energy, paired with demand reduction, is another aspect of sustainable procurement.

Source Reduction

Source reduction is an important strategy for reducing the consumption of raw materials, while maintaining efficiency and usability of the products. Source reduction goes beyond recycling by attempting to reduce negative environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of the product. Design, manufacturing, usage, sales (including packaging), and final disposal are all part of source reduction (Box 11).

Benefits of source reduction include:

• Decreasing environmental impacts, including a decrease in pollution and toxicity, and decrease in the use of non-renewable resources.
• Lower costs, and increased economic benefits throughout the production process:
• Harvesting operations (more efficient and targeted harvesting)
• Manufacturing (less raw materials to process).
• Product management (collection, transportation, packaging and storage).

The benefits of source reduction should be considered in the light of consequences for performance and usability. A lower-performing paper using fewer resources per unit of product may create a false sense of economy of resources, if it requires more units of the product to accomplish the task. This is particularly true for some products that undergo specialized treatment and processing to enhance performance and usability (e.g., tissue with additives to soothe skin, stronger and more durable paper, and so on)

Efficiency

Besides wood, energy remains the most expensive part of the manufacturing process for the pulp and paper industry. While energy efficiency has improved dramatically in the last few decades, the manufacturing processes of many products still consume considerable amounts of energy. Energy reduction is of strong interest to the forest products industry.

Some pulp mills burn residual biomass, both, to meet their own energy needs, and to sell surplus energy to the grid. However, most mills do not, either because they have not been equipped with sufficiently modern technology, or because the production process does not generate biomass residue as a by-product (such as mechanical pulping).

Demand Reduction

Demand reduction can be a positive and important element of a sustainable procurement strategy. Reusing the back side of paper, using double-sided printing, using lighter products, etc. are all ways to reduce wasteful consumption.