MIAMISBURG, Ohio, Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NewPage Corporation, the leading producer of printing and specialty papers in North America, announced today the release of its 2011-12 Sustainable Development Report, Making a Difference.

"Because our products come from the forest, NewPage has a unique opportunity to make a difference to the world around us by managing and using resources sustainably," said George Martin, president and chief executive officer for NewPage. "At NewPage sustainability means operating in a way that meets our company's need to thrive and grow without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. We know that we need to continuously improve to meet our sustainability goals, and we have a long history of doing this in all aspects of our business."

NewPage produces an annual sustainable development report to provide its stakeholders a look at the company's performance and activities designed to improve the way we manage human, natural and financial resources. The company focuses on five key areas of sustainability:

1. Healthy, Safe and Engaged Employees
2. Responsible Sourcing of Raw Materials
3. Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing
4. Responsible and Safe Products
5. Strong, Viable Communities

Making a Difference provides an overview of the company's performance and latest actions in these five key areas. Highlights from the report include:

• Improved safety performance with a Total Case Incident Rate (TCIR) of 2.14 in 2011 compared to 2.65 in 2010.
• Increased chain-of-custody certified product sales to 28 percent of total sales (up two percent from 2010).
• Procured 48 percent of its fiber from certified and recycled sources (down one percent from 2010), and all fiber was procured from North America and in compliance with the requirements of the U.S. Lacey Act and European Union Timber Regulation for legal fiber sources. All NewPage mills also have maintained chain-of-custody systems that are third-party certified to FSC^®, PEFC and SFI standards.
• Met 95% of the pulp needs for our paper products from internal pulp production.
• Fifty-four percent of the total energy used in NewPage operations was produced from biomass fuels, a renewable energy source primarily derived from the company's manufacturing byproducts (up one percent from 2010).
• Achieved a 12 percent reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels, bringing NewPage closer to the company's goal to cut total greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
• Researched, developed and launched four new products: TrueJet^®, Sterling^® Premium, PointTrac^™ TT and OmniPoint^™ over the past two years.
• Continued to contribute time and financial resources to charitable organizations and strategic partners. Partnerships with nonprofit organizations like World Resources Institute and customers such as L.L.Bean and McGraw-Hill have been formed to help preserve and increased the amount of certified forestland and improve the recycling practices of paper products at the end of their useful life.

"Despite the challenges our company has faced, we made real progress on all fronts in 2011 and 2012. While we had to make many tough decisions, we kept our eyes on our business strategy and focus on our employees and customers.  We drove productivity using Lean Six Sigma and launched a number of important new products to position NewPage for sustainable success," said Martin.

To download a printable PDF of the report, or to learn more about NewPage Corporation, please visit www.NewPageCorp.com/sustainability.

About NewPage
NewPage is the leading producer of printing and specialty papers in North America with $3.5 billion in net sales for the year ended December 31, 2011. NewPage is headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, and owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 3.5 million tons of paper.

The company's product portfolio is the broadest in North America and includes coated, specialty, supercalendered and uncoated papers. These papers are used in commercial printing to create corporate collateral, magazines, catalogs, books, coupons, inserts and direct mail as well as in specialty paper applications including beverage bottle labels, food and medical packaging, pressure-sensitive labels and release liners.

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SOURCE NewPage Corporation