First Business Communication Paper to Pass Audit Using WWF Japan's Responsible Purchasing Checklist

Copyright WWF Japan

Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Ltd., announced on December 21, 2009, that its self-assessment of its paper products based on World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Japan's "Responsible Purchasing Checklist for Forest Products" was confirmed by an audit conducted by Amita Corp., a leading environmental business consulting firm. Mitsubishi evaluated its forest products registered on "Eco-products Net," an online catalog of green products managed by the Green Purchasing Network (GPN), using the WWF's checklist to make sure that their products are produced without serious environmental and social impacts on forests. Amita's audit confirmed that the result of Mitsubishi's self-assessment is legitimate. This is the first case in Japan where a manufacturer's self-assessment using the WWF's checklist has been officially confirmed by a third-party audit.

The checklist developed by WWF Japan is a tool to assess wood and paper products based on their environmental and social impacts on forests, where companies can evaluate their forest products by answering questions on the checklist. Furthermore, self-assessment results can be audited by a third party, in order to ascertain compliance with a company's commitment to environmental protection.

From Mitsubishi's products registered on GPN's Eco-products Net, five items of carbonless copy paper were audited by Amita. All were evaluated as achieving grade B, equal to a score of 60 to 79 points out of 100.

WWF Japan Releases 'Responsible Purchasing Checklist for Forest Products' (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028850.html
A Brief History of the Environmental Movement in Japan (Part II) No.83 (July 2009)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/mailmagazine/newsletter/pages/
029265.html
WWF Japan's "Responsible Purchasing Checklist"
http://www.wwf.or.jp/rpc/e

Posted: 2010/05/16 06:00:15 AM