Dirigo Paper Featured in "Book Business"

Following up on an article in its June, 2006 issue, industry magazine Book Business surveyed seven members of the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper leadership council, including Dirigo Paper CEO Peter Hanson, about what the treatise means to the paper industry and why more companies should become signers. You can read the article here (PDF).

Dirigo Paper was the first paper company to sign The Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper, an agreement developed by the Green Press Initiative which defines goals for improving the environmental impact of the industry's consumption of over one million tons of paper each year. You can read more about the The Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper in this article (PDF).

Dirigo Paper Company a HubZone Contractor

Dirigo Paper Company is pleased to announce that the US Small Business Administration has certified Dirigo as a HUBZone contractor, based on Dirigo's status as a 100% US citizen-owned small business employing workers in an economically distressed region. The letter from the US SBA certifying Dirigo's HubZone status has more information.

Dirigo Paper Company Becomes First Paper Mill to Sign Book Industry Treatise

Dirigo Paper Company announces that it has signed the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use developed by the Green Press Initiative, and has joined the Treatise Leadership Council. Dirigo is the first mill to sign the treatise.

"We believe the goals of the Book Industry Treatise, to promote the use of recycled fibers and fibers derived from forests managed using best ecological practices, represent the best path to maintaining a sustainable manufacturing base in the book paper industry," said Peter Hanson, Dirigo's CEO. "In the long run, the methods of paper manufacturing endorsed by the Treatise will enable us to maintain jobs while preserving our high quality of life."

The Treatise on Responsible Paper Use sets attainable and measurable goals for improving the social and ecological footprint of the book industry, including the goal of moving the book industry's collective average use of post-consumer recycled fiber from its current 5% level to 30% by 2011.

Dirigo manufactures its Green Mountain™ Opaque, Green Mountain™ Trade Book and other fine papers at the Gilman Mill using a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled fiber and renewable, environmentally friendly energy resources. Dirigo's Gilman Mill, a leader in Green Power since 1979, uses no fossil fuels in its manufacturing processes. The Mill produces process steam from its biomass boiler using renewable resources, and generates electricity from its run-of-the-river, low-impact hydro-electric plant and steam co-generation turbine.

With its soft footprint in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, the Gilman Mill shares the river with a rare aquatic species as well as with eagles, osprey and trout. Dirigo Paper Company proudly carries on the Gilman Mill's tradition of responsible environmental stewardship.

For more information about Green Mountain Tradebook and other fine papers, contact us at 877-291-8580.

Community Rink to Reopen on Mill Grounds

Area residents will be able to skate in a rink located on the grounds of the Gilman Mill for the first time in ten years starting this winter, thanks to a cooperative effort between Dirigo Paper Company, the selectmen of the town of Lunenburg, Vermont and the Lunenburg Community Justice Center. Dirigo will lease the land for the regulation-sized hockey rink to the town free of charge and provide water and flood lights. The community will maintain the rink using a volunteer staff.

In a ceremony at the mill, Lunenburg selectmen Calvin Colby and Alan Rich presented a pair of figure skates (pictured above), painted by Nancy Reed, Director of the Lunenburg Community Justice Center, with a representation of the skating rink in the 1930s, to Dirigo Paper Company CEO Peter Hanson. If there's enough volunteer interest, the return of the rink might spark other community efforts, including revival of a town hockey league and the construction of a rink-side warming shed.

To read more, please see The Caledonian-Record.

Photo by Edith Tucker, courtesy of the Coos County Democrat.

Gilman Mill Reopening Inspires Hope

The reopening of the Gilman Mill after an outage of more than two years spurred economic development and a growing sense of hope in the region. An article in The Caledonian Record details this story in full; read it here.