Glossary of Terms
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A
Alternative inks – Non-petroleum-based inks that are derived from vegetable sources and are safe for the environment. NAA chemists assisted in the development of alternative inks that are most commonly manufactured from refined soybean oil. However, many other oils are also used including canola, castor, coconut, corn, cottonseed, linseed, safflower, sunflower, tung and veronia.
American Tree Farm System (ATFS) – A forest management system originally created in 1941 and considered the first forest management system. ATFS is small in comparison to other certification programs in terms of acreage certified. Currently, the ATFS is sponsored by the American Forest Foundation (AFF) and has certified 24 million acres of privately owned forestland.
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B
Bleached pulp - Wood pulp that has been chemically treated to remove lignin and bleached through an environmentally safe process using sodium peroxide to achieve a certain level of brightness.
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C
Canadian Standards Association – Sustainable Forest Management (CSA-SFM)– A forest management system organized through the Canadian Standards Association. It was created in 1996 and has been revised as recently as 2002. Currently CSA-SFM is recognized as the functional equivalent to the U.S.-based Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).
Carbon black – The name for black ink pigment, which is the most common ink used in newspaper publishing.
Cellulose - The plant-derived raw material of many manufactured goods, including paper and textiles. It is manufactured from the structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants.
Chain of custody – A qualification involved in several forest management systems requiring the certified company to be able to track wood through every part of the supply chain.
Chlorine – A chemical that can be used to bleach newsprint but is used less often due its greater environmental impact in comparison to alternative bleaching methods, such as sodium peroxide.
Clearcutting - A forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in a harvest area are cut down.
Color printing – A process in newspaper printing where color originals such as photographs are reproduced using a combination of only four inks—yellow, magenta, cyan and black.
Copper and barium - The most common metals blended in compounds to form ink pigments. Copper is commonly found in blue, green, violet and some red inks. Barium is commonly found in orange and red inks.
Cumberland Plateau - The southern stretch of land of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The plateau contains some of the largest stretches of contiguous forest in the eastern United States and is a major focus for the Dogwood Alliance’s move towards sustainable forestry in the southeast.
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D
Dampening solution - A thin film of aqueous solution applied to the image plate during the newspaper printing process. Also called fountain solution.
Dogwood Alliance – A non-governmental organization based out of Asheville, North Carolina. It is a network of over 70 groups around the southern United States working to achieve broad-based support to end unsustainable forestry practices in the region. The organization works in the marketplace to move large paper producers and customers away from sourcing their paper from endangered forests and towards increased use of post-consumer recycled fiber and other environmentally friendly alternatives.
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E
Exotics – Term used in logging to describe the practice of growing trees not endemic to a specific location.
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F
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – A forest management system founded in the 1990s through the actions of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. It is often cited as the most credible and environmentally sound of all the certification programs.
Fountain solution - A thin film of aqueous solution applied to the image plate during the newspaper printing process. Also called dampening solution.
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G
Genetically Modified Organism - An organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. Several forest management systems have specific guidelines concerning the use of GMOs.
Ground wood - Wood that is ground into a pulp without any additional purification.
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H
Heavy metals – Toxic metals originally used in news inks that were phased out of use during the 1980s.
Hydrogen peroxide – A chemical used for bleaching wood pulp. It is often used instead of chlorine because of its reduced impact on the environment.
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I
Incineration - A waste treatment technology that involves the combustion of organic materials and/or substances. This and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment." It is one of several options for waste disposal.
Ink toxicity guidelines - NAA developed guidelines for the heavy metals lead, chromium, and cadmium in inks at levels below 250 parts-per-million, an amount well below the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s 600 parts-per-million standard for lead in the paint on children’s toys.
Ink oil - A class of highly refined petroleum oils that will not readily evaporate. These oils are approved for direct food contact and are used in a variety of common food and pharmaceutical products.
International Organization for Standardization 14001 –This environmental management standard is often used by the logging industry as a framework for sustainable forestry procedures.
Inserts - Added material commonly found within newspapers. These usually consist of sales ads, magazines and special sections.
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L
Land fill - A site for the disposal of waste materials by burial. It is the oldest form of waste treatment. Historically, landfills have been the most common methods of organized waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world.
Lignin - The natural component of wood that holds the cellulose fibers together.
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N
Newsprint - A low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use on printing presses that employ a long web of paper versus individual sheets of paper.
“Nip” – The area formed between printing the press components called the blanket and impression cylinder, where the printing ink is forced onto the surface of the paper. When the paper is printed, it is compressed in this area.
Nonheatset – Modern inks used in offset lithography.
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O
Offset lithography - A commonly used printing technique where the inked image is transferred, or "offset," from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat image carrier, or planograph, on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a water-based film, keeping the non-printing areas ink-free.
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P
Performance-based system – A process in which a certifying organization sets most or all performance criteria for a system and oversees the assessment process to ensure conformance. Types of performance and the interpretation of performance criteria can very widely between certification programs. Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are examples of performance-based certification programs.
Pigment - The portion of ink that provides color.
Plantations - A plantation is an intentional planting of a crop, on a larger scale, usually for uses other than cereal production or pasture. The term is currently most often used for plantings of trees and shrubs.
Industrial tree plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. They are actively managed for the commercial production of forest products and individual blocks of the plantation are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species.
Planograph – A flat plate used in the offset lithography printing process to transfer images.
Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) – PEFC is a global umbrella organization for the assessment and mutual recognition of national forest certification schemes developed in a multi-stakeholder process. These national schemes build upon the inter-governmental processes for the promotion of sustainable forest management, a series of on-going mechanisms supported by 149 governments in the world covering 85 percent of the world's forest area.
PEFC has in its membership 35 independent national forest certification systems, of which 25 to date have been through a rigorous assessment process. These 25 systems, including the Canadian Standard Association’s Sustainable Forest Management (CSA-SFA) program and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), account for more than 200 million hectares of certified forests producing millions of tons of certified timber to the market place, making PEFC the world's largest certification system.
Pulp - Pulp is a dry fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating the fibers that make up wood. It can be either fluffy or formed into thick sheets.
Wood pulp is the most common material used to make paper. The timber resources used to make wood pulp are referred to as pulpwood. Wood pulp comes from softwood trees such as spruce, pine, fir, larch and hemlock, and hardwoods such as eucalyptus, aspen and birch.
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R
Recycle - To use again, especially to reprocess. Recycling involves processing used materials into new products in order to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution from incineration and water pollution from landfilling by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.
Recycled fibers – Recovered paper that has been converted back into fiber form to be reused in the newsprint manufacturing process.
Rub off – The transfer of ink to another surface and, in the case of newspapers, this typically means hands and fingers. The material that is actually transferred is essentially ink oil and pigment.
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S
Systems-based certification – A process in which an organization identifies its own environmental aspects and impacts, sets its own goals and targets, and devises an environmental management system to address them.
ISO, or International Organization for Standardization, 14001 is a systems based certification program. It specifies requirements for establishing an environmental policy, determining environmental aspects and impacts of products/activities/services, planning environmental
objectives and measurable targets, implementation and operation of programs to meet objectives and targets, checking and corrective action, and management review.
Sustainability - Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Sustainable Forestry Management - Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management entails setting very broad social, economic and environmental goals. A range of forestry institutions now practice various forms of sustainable forest management and a broad range of methods and tools are available that have been tested over time.
Sustainable Forestry Initiative - Originally founded and run by the American Forest & Paper Association, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is now wholly independent, international and run by the SFI board. Board members include representatives of environmental, conservation, professional and academic groups, independent professional loggers, small family forest owners, public officials, labor and the forest products industry.
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V
Volatile Organic Compounds, VOCs - VOCs are organic chemical compounds that have high enough vapor pressures under normal conditions to significantly vaporize and enter the atmosphere. A wide range of carbon-based molecules, such as aldehydes, ketones, and other light hydrocarbons are VOCs.
The most common VOC is methane, a greenhouse gas sometimes excluded from analysis of other VOCs using the term non-methane VOCs, or NMVOCs. Major worldwide sources of atmospheric methane include wetlands, ruminants such as cows, energy use, rice agriculture, landfills, and burning biomass such as wood.
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