A closer look at… Clairefontaine paper (II)
Just wanted to follow up on last week’s post about Clairefontaine paper and talk a bit about the company’s commitment to the environment… As I mentioned back in April, the Clairefontaine factory is at the forefront of environmental technology, recapturing the energy that’s given off during the manufacturing process to generate fully 80% of its own electricity. Wastewater is sent through special treatment stations in order to purify it and eliminate toxins; it’s then returned to the nearby River Meurthe. And as Christine Nusse, president of Clairefontaine’s parent company, Exaclair, told me a couple of weeks ago, even the sludge from that wastewater is made into a fertilizer.
Last week, I mentioned that both the wood and the pre-made pulp that are used in Clairefontaine paper come from from ecologically certified forests—forests whose managers preserve ecological diversity and plant as many trees as they cut down. One of the more interesting things I just learned is that you don’t even necessarily have to cut down trees to make paper; instead, the fibers often come from byproducts of the foresting industry (recovered from scraps of wood that aren’t suitable for making furniture).
The Clairefontaine paper mill has been around since 1858, though a nearby monastery was apparently known for making vellum well before that.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Thanks for this info–I’m looking for a notebook to start my next novel in (have happily used Miquelrius, but they can be harder for me to find) and will check out the Clairefontaines. Nice to know that they are environmentally conscious.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Well, kudos to you for continuing to write by hand! If you’re curious, here’s a list of novelists and writers who are partial to Clairefontaine notebooks…
August 8th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Unfortunately the clothbound Clairefontaines are nonexistent in my town. . .which were the ones I was searching for, with no luck. I do tend to write stretches of my first draft by hand, and do 99% of my brainstorming on paper as opposed to computer.
August 8th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Well, if you don’t mind shopping online (I know it’s a little weird for a paper product that you’d prefer to evaluate in your hands), you can find Clairefontaine planners at the Daily Planner and Alko… There are a couple of other sites listed on the Quo Vadis website, as well.
Personally, I don’t do much more than jot down lots of random, disorganized notes on paper, but I do love the feel of Clairefontaine notebooks.
August 8th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Thanks for the guidance, Leah.