Punchbowl launches nonprofit to tackle wasted paper problem

Punchbowl.org will give grants to organizations solving the problem of paper waste

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There are certain things that, if you tried to explain them to someone born today, they would think you were making it up. Phones used to have cords, you used to have to go to the movie theater to buy tickets, and craziest of all, people would send you, without ever asking for them, giant books, made of paper, with everyone's phone number so you could call them!

I can't even remember the last time I saw a phone book, but there are 650,000 tons of them delivered to U.S. homes every year. That translates to 4.68 million trees, and 44.2 billion liters of water, which are used to produce what becomes 410,000 tons of wasted paper. It's about as anti-environmentally friendly as you can get.

Digital invitation company Punchbowl has decided to tackle the problem, announcing on Friday, in conjunction with Earth Day, that it has set up a new environmental nonprofit, called Punchbowl.org Environmental Fund, Inc, with the mission of eliminating unwanted and obsolete paper and paper-products.

One of the inspirations for this idea were various requests that the company had received over the years from causes, charities, brands and non-profits for specific invites and cards, Stephanie Fader, Executive Director of Punchbowl.org, and VP of Sales and Marketing at Punchbowl.com, told me in an interview.

"We have had to evaluate what makes sense, to look at the types of charitable activities, and we we got a lot of inquiries. We had to ask if it made sense, and we tended to be careful how we spent our dollars, with most of it going back into the business to maximize growth," she said.

"When we started to become profitable we were able to turn attention to these causes. We like to give back, so we asked ourselves lot of questions, and came up with something we felt matched the long-term vision for Punchbowl."

That long-term vision is one where unnecessary paper waste doesn't exist, and where Punchbowl can help eliminate it by raising awareness of the problem.

The other inspiration came from all of the unsolicited catalogs that Punchbowl was receiving, and promptly throwing away. 

"In our office we receive huge a 800-page supply catalog, which we never ordered, and we have no intention to buy from. That happens in lots of instances around the world. It's frustrating to put it into recycling, because the tree has already been cut down, the water wasted, the C02 released into the atmosphere," Fader said.

"That is how we landed at this Punchbowl.org environmental focus. We are company that focuses on digital for celebrations, and we wanted to marry those long-term visions."

One thing that Fader made sure to mention was that it is not Punchbowl.org's intention to make the future completely paperless.

"It's really important to make the distinction. We realize people love paper, and that it brings a lot of value for certain things. We're really talking about wasteful paper. There are a few people who like getting a phone book, and like getting catalogs, but the majority who don't, that's who we're talking about. We need to reduce that type of production."

The main source of funding for Punchbowl.org comes from Punchbowl, Inc., through a combination of
monetary donations, customer donations at checkout, and volunteer efforts. Eventually the plan is for Punchbowl.com to integrate Punchbowl.org into its platform. So that when users check out on the site, for example, they will have the opportunity to donate to Punchbowl.org. 

Punchbowl.org also relies on support from the community and it says it greatly values donations from the public and other partners. 

So far no money has been raised, as the site is only launching today, and there is no specific target at this point. When it does begin to raise funds, Punchbowl.org plans to use them, in part, to give grants to organization that help to solve the problem of paper waste.

Right now the organization is just starting to identify which organizations it will donate to, and to build its Board of Directors. 

In terms of what kind of impact Punchbowl.org is hoping to have, that is also being determined.

"We're wrapping our heads around the problem. It's not just catalogs and phone books, but entire industries where this is a problem. What we need to do is get our hands around how big the problem is, then we can identify the goals, and how much we can impact the progress," Fader told me.

(Image source: linkedin.com)