In Our Hands: The future of our endangered forests depends on how dedicated corporations pitch in to help Mother Nature.
Special Insert Excerpted from Fortune Magazine, March 5, 2007.

As far as Don Droppo Jr. is concerned, green is gold. "we're a true testament to the idea that green business makes economic sense," says the vice president of Curtis Packaging, a family-owned company in Sandy Hook, Conn. Thanks in part to a shift to eco-friendly paper in its packages, Curtis's annual sales in the past four years have doubled to $40 million - a remarkable performance given the poor overall state of the U.S. packaging industry, which has been steadily losing business to overseas competitors.

Curtis's interest in packaging was heightened when cosmetics maker Estée Lauder asked the company to package its Origins natural-products line in the 'most environmentally friendly paper out there," says Droppo. The research he did for the project led him to suggest that the company shift its entire business model. "I started to learn about sustainability and asked what my company could do so that we could be as environmentally conscious as possible," he says.

The first step for Curtis was getting the paper in its packages certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit organization that has created a global standard for sustainable forestry. The company started the certification process by buying paper only from FSC certified mills. Next it converted 100% of its energy needs to clean, pollution-free renewable energy, with the majority being sourced from wind power. That done, Curtis could print eco-friendly messages on its packaging certifying that they were truly green.

The resulting media attention more than compensated for the added expense. "FSC paper costs the same but our power costs went up 10% to 15%," Droppo says. "But when we talk about cost internally, we think of it as a marketing expense. Not only are we doing the right thing for the environment, but we're getting a tremendous amount of exposure because of this."

Indeed, in the last two months Droppo has fielded calls from FORTUNE 500 companies like Kellogg's and Target. "It's very difficult for a company our size to call Kellogg's and get through to the right person, but they're calling us now," he says. "And Target's looking to package a whole organic product line. We're meeting today."

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