October 5th, 2009

From Green Right Now Reports

In a nod to greener times, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Congressional Record is now being printed on 100 percent recycled paper. The Speaker received her first environmentally friendly copy of the Congressional Record Friday from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Each day the federal government’s General Printing Office produces 4,130 copies of the Congressional Record — despite the document’s availability online. But that number is down more than 75 percent from 1995 because of the Internet.

“What we are doing now will reduce landfill waste, reduce 1.4 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions annually, support private industry efforts to develop new, environmentally friendly technologies,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It puts the official proceedings of Congress on recycled paper and that is good for our environment and good for our future.”

The move is part of the larger “Green the Capitol” Initiative, started by Speaker Pelosi in 2007, which has instituted sustainability practices to make the House a leader in resource conservation and energy efficiency. She called the initiative “long overdue.”

“This effort, the effort to green the nation, obviously must start at home,” Pelosi said. “And home for us in the House and in the Senate and for Members of Congress is right here in the Capitol. This is one more step in the ‘Green the Capitol’ program – making sustainability a priority, placing conservation and energy efficiency at the top of our agenda, and putting America’s leaders at the forefront of an issue that affects all Americans.”