by kevin, on December 18th, 2009
A darker aspect of the rapidly expanding green building movement is that some companies are so desperate to be perceived as credible that they take liberty with the truth. Manufacturers and service providers are both attempting to communicate deep green roots. The intensity of those efforts often pushes them to employ questionable language and marketing tactics.
When I met the president of PaperStone, Roy Nott, just as the Greenbuild Expo floor was shutting down, I knew instantly that he was just the opposite – authentically green. Spend a few minutes with him and you can’t help but be overwhelmed by his sincerity, transparency, and dedication to making his products the best possible. For him, his company’s products not only need to meet customer needs, but they need to meet those of the natural environment. Like many of the individuals we interviewed in this series, Roy has been at it for a while. He’s not jumping on a green building bandwagon. He was interested in balancing business decisions related to planet, people, and profit long before the phrase ‘triple bottom line’ became popular.
Where other companies are trying to find the right language to redefine their products and cast them in a greener light, PaperStone (made by Paneltech International) has been environmentally friendly right from it’s inception. Even though the expo floor was being torn apart around us, Roy and I were able to chat for a while about the principles behind his company. He describes himself as a corporate retread who went back home to the rain of Hoquiam, WA – just thirty miles from where he grew up. He began building his new company in 1995 based on five P’s – People, Place, Product and Process, Price, and Partners. Roy wanted to make the cleanest and greenest products, employing the cleanest and greenest processes economically and technically viable. But it doesn’t matter how good a product is if at the end of the day it’s not price competitive. To achieve these goals, he knew he couldn’t do it without help. It’s a challenge large enough that no single company operating alone will be able to overcome, so he knew he had to develop strategic partnerships with other manufacturers and like-minded people. One of the first was with The Collins Companies – a privately held forest product company. Collins purchased a mill in Oregon and asked if Paneltech could help develop a new line of overlay plywood. In short order the two companies realized they shared similar passion and values, so Collins purchased a part of the company to literally become a partner.
Soon after that, Paneltech started making a saturated paper product for Joel Klippert which is the precursor to PaperStone. And here’s the part of the conversation where I knew Roy was the real deal. He admitted that it’s not totally clear who came up with the name PaperStone – it might have been him, or Joel, or Tim Taylor of Ecohaus in Seattle WA. At the time, Joel was making a similar product used for skateboard ramps. With Roy’s background in paper and the help of world class chemist, Krishan Sudan, they developed something similar to that of Richlite, but one that uses 100% post-consumer paper and a petroleum-free resin that Paneltech makes itself from raw materials like cashew nutshell liquid. I’ll return to that distinction later.
Another point of differentiation is that PaperStone products are colored internally. Some of their competitors purchase pre-colored paper. In doing so, PaperStone is able to ensure that only organic pigments are added rather that synthetic dyes. And they have complete control of the colors offered.
The fact that PaperStone panels are produced the way they are means they can live additional lives. Typical petroleum derived phenolic resin impregnated paper panels can really only be used as fuel when they reach their end of life. The paper impregnated with a petroleum resin means the product cannot be recycled. It cannot be returned back into the assembly line to be recycled, and the best next use is to be ground up and burned as hog fuel, typically at paper pulp mills.
Not only can PaperStone products be returned to the manufacturing process, but Roy has started a new line based on that waste called Stonkast. A friend with a cultured marble plant was using molds to create dimensional products such as sink bowls, shower enclosures, and other home products. Working together with Paneltech, they figured out how to make PaperStone moldable. Stonkast is the result of their experiments. It’s made entirely from waste PaperStone product – not only scrap off the production line, but through an affiliated fabricator return program. With this program, scrap left over after final installation is returned to the factory and molded into Stonkast forms
Images courtesy of PaperStone web site
PaperStone is available in three lines with different color variations for each – Original (made from 100% post-consumer recycled cardboard), Certified (certified to FSC standards and made from 100% post-consumer recycled standard office paper), and Virgin (made from FSC-certified virgin fiber). Each line has subtle variation in color and finish, but all share the same basic aesthetic appearance. They are smooth to the touch, are available in several thicknesses, and are easily workable to create interesting design alternatives.
At the end of our interview, carpet was being pulled off the expo floor and exhibitors were tearing down their booths, but our dialogue with Roy was so compelling we hardly noticed, and stayed to the very end. It was a great conversation with someone who seems to have grown right out of the earth. He’s not trying to be green – he is green – he’s authentic. Check out his products and let us know what you think.
Thank you, Roy, for your time!
Peter Colburn came up with the name PaperStone. Peter was working for Ecohaus (EHC) at the time. He currently works for Tiger Mountain Innovations.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for your comment. Since writing this post I’ve talked with a number of people connected to the story who told me about Peter. Since this post was about my conversation with Roy, I’ve decided not to add Peter. However, I’ll be doing an interview soon with someone also connected to the story and Peter will be mentioned in that post. But thanks for letting me know.
We use a lot of Paperstone, and let me get on this bandwagon: it’s a simply stellar product!
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