Brother printers and ink help protect the rainforest in Papua New Guinea

Brother expands its cooperation with the environmental organisation Cool Earth. The goal is to highlight Brother as the market's greenest printer manufacturer. Anyone who returns used Brother toners and cartridges for recycling contributes to saving endangered jungles and rain forests.

The printer manufacturer Brother and all the company's thousands of customers are helping to make the world a little greener.

In fact, Brother one of the main sponsors of the international environmental organisation Cool Earth, which is renowned for protecting endangered rainforests all over the world.

The cooperation between Brother and Cool Earth was recently expanded considerably with a project in Asian Papua New Guinea, where they will jointly save endangered trees in eight square kilometres of rainforest.

The famous British fashion queen Dame Vivienne Westwood has been announced as a patron of the project in Papua New Guinea.

Brother’s Danish customers aid
Brother donates money to Cool Earth project through its European Eco Rewards recycling initiative, in which also Brother Denmark participates.

The extent of the cashflow depends on how many toners and cartridges are returned for recycling by users of Brother printers and all-in-one machines.

In addition, all Brother employees participate in an internal Eco Points programme, and there is money for Cool Earth through Brother’s Global "Click for the Earth" campaign, too.

Over the past five years, Brother has helped save over 1.3 million trees in partnership with the Cool Earth organisation.

The many trees were saved in the Peruvian rainforests around the Amazon River. Here they prevented the illegal felling of trees, and through the protection of the natural environment, they also helped local tribes that have lived in the jungle for centuries or longer.

For example, they got solar powered internet connections and assistance to produce crops such as coffee and nuts in an environmentally safe and responsible manner.

Brother’s products among the greenest on the market
"We participate in the Cool Earth projects with great fervour and joy. They are helping to save the climate on our planet, but they also help to highlight Brother as the most environmentally friendly printer manufacturer," explains Nordic Marketing Manager Henning Elkjaer from Brother Nordic A/S.

"The fact that their supplier has a good and clear conscience is important to more and more Danish purchasers. Both among the professionals in companies and the public sector – but to a great extent in the private Danish homes, too," continues Henning Elkjaer.

Most of Brothers machines are marked with the Nordic Eco-label. Moreover, they are certified by ENERGY STAR and the German Blue Angel, which is probably the world's toughest environmental standards for i.a. office equipment.

The certifications indicate that Brother’s products are designed so that large parts of them can be recycled. Furthermore, Brother products are manufactured in environmentally certified factories. They are easy to operate, use very little power, and Brother has an efficient system for collection and recycling of e.g. toners and cartridges.

Moreover, Brother Denmark has a retail network of 110 "Environmental Partners" that collect used toner and drums and send them back to Brother for recycling.

Saving the rainforest in Papua New Guinea
The new Cool Earth project is located in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, located on an island close to Indonesia and north of Australia.

The project covers an area of ​​485 square kilometres of virgin rainforest, which is in danger of disappearing due to the felling of trees. The project also support the people who live in the area.

"Brother plays a central and very important role for our projects to become reality. In Papua New Guinea, we will reduce CO2 emissions caused by deforestation. We will also protect the delicate ecosystem, which has taken nine million years to create," says Cool Earth’s director, Matthew Owen.

For more information please contact
Nordic Marketing Manager Henning Elkjaer, Brother Nordic A/S, phone 43 31 31 31, e-mail: henning.elkjaer@brother.dk
or
Leif Bomberg, Bomberg PR, phone 22 67 25 27, e-mail: leif@bomberg.