From regulating our water supplies and storing carbon, to products, economy and livelihoods. Ensuring forests remain healthy and is down to us all and it's easy to do by making simple lifestyle choices.

Nature at your service

1. Trees have been around for over 300 million years.
2. Forests cover 31% of the world total land area and are home to 80% of terrestrial biodiversity.
3. 36 million acres (the equivalent of 36 million football pitches) of natural forest are lost each year.
4. Trees soak up carbon dioxide and store it as solid wood which means almost 50% of the dry weight of a tree is carbon.
5. Over 40 percent of the world's oxygen is produced from rainforests.
6. More than a quarter of modern medicines originate from tropical forest plants.
7. Forestry accounts for 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
8. In the 1990s the UK was the 5th highest consumer of paper and board in the world.

Present day consumption

1. The average office worker prints 22 pages every working day. Over 21% of prints are disposed of before seeing out their first day.
2. Recycling paper reduces water pollution by 35% and air pollution by 74%.
3. The rising cost of energy has shut more than 10 UK paper mills in the last three years.
4. Recycled paper is never 100% recycled because of the need to use some virgin fibres to give it strength. To check how much recycled content is used in your paper check the number inside the recycle triangle.
5. 10 litres of water are required to make just 1 sheet of A4 paper (80gsm).
6. Producing recycled paper uses up to 70% less energy than virgin paper, as well as using far less water.
7. Recycling 1 tonne of paper (or 200,000 sheets) saves up to 31 trees and the equivalent energy needed to power a three bedroom house for a year.

Take action

• Ensure Duplex printing is set as default and only print when you really need to.
• Changing from 100gsm to 80gsm can reduce your paper consumption by 20%, whilst reducing from 80 to 70 will decrease by a further 14%.
• Buy recycled paper and buy in bulk to reduce packaging.
• Promote recycling in your office and make sure that your recycling points are easy to access.

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