a small tcf strategy: certification

[cmcr@ism.net (Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers)]

i recently talked with chet chaffee,  vp for marketing w/ scientific
certification systems (scs)--the green cross(tm) folks.  he has talked to
archie (beaton, cfpa), apparantly gving him the same message he gave me:
they could get out a tcf certification in 2-4 months after a company came
to them requesting one.  they have looked at tcf certifying, and have
decided they would provide one if just one company came to them requesting
it.  said they've talked to l-p/samoa but i didn't ask straight out why l-p
hasn't gone for it.  green-x doesn't make value judgements, they just
provide a tcf certification for the marketplace to use in making purchasing
decisions.  the value judgement (ie, "tcf is good for society") is made by
the purchaser.

so i think we have one more  piece of leverage with stone and their
sky-white liner.  would stone see some incremental sales & profits in using
the certification?  how do we present it to them for maximal perceived
benefit?  they have obviously thought a lot about their white liner
competitors in the context of the competition starting to supply the
supposed demand for whiter--thicker, less mottled white liner--they _are_
sensitive to market advantage, but will they perceive tcf as a sales tool?


... a response:
Tony,

        I suspect that we have all wondered whether Stone will see the light in
the possibility of using a switch to TCF in their Marketing stadegy, but
I haven't thought about the certification angle.
        In my years at Greenpeace working on Pulp and Paper, I did come up with
a couple of theories.  The first is of the influence that the Chemical
compainies (i.e. Dupont, as the largest chlorine producer) have, whether
through direct finacial concerns, or indirect pressures, on the Paper
Industry.  I wouldn't put it past them to be telling Stone that if they
switch to TCF in one mill that their supply of chlorine to other mills
might be occasionally interrupted, of the like.
        The other considers the likelyhood of internal pressures within the
Pulp and Paper industry which don't what to see any switch to TCF in the
US become it could be seem as an admission that dixions exist in their
effluents in quantities great enough to be dangerous, thus increasing
the public pressures for them all to change.


Tony Tweedale                                            || "I'm not going
to get involved in any of
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Missoula, Montana 59807                    	||           -Rep. John
Doolittle (R-CA)
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|| " 'Are the people being protected?'
cmcr@ism.net			                                          	||   is too
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12/12/96
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