Jules Van Sant speaks to a lot of college students studying graphic communications across the U.S. and Canada about paper. She loves that part of her job (she’s the executive director of the aptly named Two Sides North America) and calls it her “good fortune” to get to meet with young people, but they’re typically a tough crowd.

“College students are keen on sustainability,” she said. “And they will challenge me. But by the end of my talk, there are always some who approach me to say, I didn’t know such-and-such. It’s good to be out there, speaking and spreading the love and making sure people know there are two sides to this story.”

Two Sides North America is the Portland, Oregon-based division of the nonprofit Two Sides global network, which includes more than 600 member companies. In countries across the globe, there’s a Two Sides telling the lesser-known sustainability story of print, paper and paper-based packaging.

Separating Fact from Fiction

“We tackle the relevant environmental and social issues facing the United States and Canada head-on first through research, then address consumer perceptions with factual, authoritative information,” according to the website, twosidesna.org. (Don’t confuse it with its counterpart at twosides.info that covers the rest of the globe.)

Two Sides is on a mission to expose myths and explain the paper industry’s sustainability story, which has too often gotten drowned out. The website gives stakeholders a fact-based foundation to help them make the case that paper products aren’t the enemy.

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