If someone told you that you could save 15,729 trees in a year, would you do it?
We would.

You count on us to tell you about the coolest stuff in our stores. And the yummiest recipe in 30 minutes. And how to shave with peanut butter (thanks, Joey Green!). But now we want to share something else with you: Our commitment to being green.

ou may have noticed in our last issue that we're printing our covers on paper containing 10% post-consumer waste (in other words, the stuff that you recycle). And now the inside of our magazine is made with paper containing 80% recycled content.

“Certified forests only encompass around 10% of the world's working forests.”

Just like you changing your light bulbs makes a difference, this is our way of making a difference, because we know every little bit helps.

It may cost us a little more, but we think it's worth it. It's the same reason we have one of the cleanest burning fleets in the nation. And the reason we created special processors to reduce our water usage in our stores.

And the reason we're now purchasing our paper from mills using fiber from sustainably managed forests. Our entire magazine is now printed on paper certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard (SFI). Which sounds cool, but what does it mean?

Our Director of Advertising and printing guru, Dave Magana, sat us down with some industry experts, like Ralph O'Connor, Director of Environmental Affairs for the folks who help us buy our paper, to walk us through it all.

Ralph explained that sustainable forestry is "the use of environmentally responsible practices to promote the protection of wildlife, plants, soil, air and water quality to ensure the future of our forests while meeting today's market demands."

Our printer (and the folks that help us buy our paper) have earned a special "chain of custody" certification from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, an independent organization that ensures paper has been harvested legally and not from protected areas. The SFI standard encompasses more than 135 million certified acres across North America, and includes rigorous independent third-party audits and documentation that tracks from these forests to our printer to our printed SE magazine.

“56% of all paper made in the U.S. is recovered and diverted from the waste stream.”

Why is this important to us? Because we want to know where our paper comes from, and how we can make a difference in everything we do.

"This has been a special project of mine for many years," Dave explains. "As a retailer - and a member of our community - it's imperative for us to be ecologically responsible in every way we can. It is also important to let our community know about the differences we're striving to make each and every day.

"It's not just about selecting paper with a higher recycled content," he continues. "It's down to the smallest detail, like opting for soy-based ink instead of petroleum-based."

We're also expanding our greener printing methods to our weekly ad that you see every Tuesday. That ad is also printed on SFI-certified paper, and that printer uses ink made with vegetable oils such as soy and linseed. They also recycle ink to prevent it from entering the waste stream.

Want to know what else we're doing? Keep an eye on a new section called Green Light in our magazine, where we'll keep you up-to-date on all that's green and good.

We made our environmental impact estimates using the Environmental Defense Fund Calculator. For more information, visit edf.org.