News Release - The Quest July 2008

Editor's Comments

This quarter, The Quest will focus on some of the specific ways that GreenFiber is changing to accomplish its long-term sustainability vision. We started down this path only a few months ago, but it's amazing how much progress we've already made. Just the fact that our people are more aware has really changed how we go about everything we do. Whether its recycling items we used to throw away or finding new ways to do things to prevent waste, our cumulative efforts are lowering GreenFiber's costs, improving our work environments, and helping to preserve our natural environments. What's even more amazing is that we're having fun doing it! In this issue, you will learn of our efforts to reduce our consumption of fuel, how one plant is having fun by using their recycling to fund its family activities outside of work, how our Community Recycling programs are growing, and the amazing progress one plant has made with its collection program.

I would like to thank all GreenFiber employees for increasing your consciousness of sustainability and for all your efforts to improve. You are a making a real difference!

I would also like to thank all of the contributors to this quarter's issue: Cal Trumbo, Dean White, Dennis Pieper, Elizabeth Byrd, and Charles Graham.

Our next edition will be dedicated to our Customers and Sustainability. If you're interested in submitting an article to The Quest, please email me at dennis.barrineau@greenfiber.com or call me at 704-379-0651.

Dennis Barrineau
President

Selling Organization Vehicles Changing

GreenFiber continues to be an environmental leader in the insulation and building industry and our company vehicle policy is no different. A cross functional team was created with representatives from Transportation, Retail Sales, Contractor/MH Sales and Field Technicians to review our current fleet and make recommendations. Currently GreenFiber has a wide variety of vehicles in our fleet from panel vans for Field Technicians to Ford Taurus to Ford Escape Hybrids. Our goal was to move all future vehicle leases to vehicles with 25 MPG or greater. This could mean 40% or more in fuel efficiency, which will translate into a savings for GreenFiber.

After reviewing our options as well as the needs of the various groups, the team settled on two options, the Toyota Camry Hybrid and the Ford Escape Hybrid. Both vehicles have MPG of 30 or greater. As current vehicle leases expire, new hybrid vehicles will be ordered depending on the specific need. One remaining challenge moving forward will be to work with our field service group to determine how best to configure the Ford Escape Hybrid to carry the equipment necessary to provide the same level of customer service and support with the smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle. As we convert the large panel vans to the Escape, the transportation group will be looking at storage systems that can be customized for each specific need.

Each small improvement can have a cumulative impact on our environment and our bottom line.

Cal Trumbo
Director, Residential Construction
How wonderful is it that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world? Anne Frank (1929 – 1945)

Community Paper Recycling Program Growing Rapidly

As many of you know, one of GreenFiber's top strategic initiatives is to aggressively grow our Community Paper Recycling Program. This is being done to reduce our dependence on market fiber and stabilize our long term financial performance. Since August of 2007 we have started two new programs at our Atlanta and Albany plants, joining our existing programs in SLC, Sacramento, Norfolk and E. St. Louis. For 2008 we set our most aggressive growth plans yet. Year to date we have more than exceeded those goals by placing over 400 new bins, bringing our company total to 2,350 bins. Before the year ends we expect to have 800 new bins placed. This effort by our recycling coordinators, plants and all associates involved, yielded a huge payoff in the month of June with our largest collection month ever of 3,943 tons. This exceeded our previous best month by over 500 tons, providing enough fiber to produce over 290,000 bags of our insulation.

On top of removing fiber from the waste stream and providing much needed recycling solutions throughout our communities, the program provides much needed fiber for our insulation plants. To further highlight how successful this program has been, during the first 6 months of this year we have increased our tonnage year over year by 36%. The 17,700 tons collected through June is enough fiber to produce over 1.3 million bags of insulation.

On top of collecting much needed fiber for our plants the Community Paper Recycling Program is also helping to make our company financially sustainable. Our company cost for this fiber YTD is $93/ton delivered which is more than a $50/ton savings under market priced ONP being delivered to our plants. Year to date this has lead to a savings for GreenFiber of $1 million dollars.

In this and upcoming Sustainability Newsletters we will be doing a series of features on our individual bin programs with Atlanta being this months feature program. I would like to thank Steve, Liz and the entire Atlanta Team in making the launch of the Atlanta Community Recycling Program such an incredible success and look forward to great growth in the future.

Dean White
Director of Purchasing

Atlanta Plant Succeeding at Sustainable Efforts

GreenFiber is fast becoming a household word throughout the Atlanta area, as bright green recycling bins are springing up like mushrooms within a 30-mile radius of the Lithia Springs plant. The Atlanta plant has also been spot lighted on cable television in a segment on Planet Green's Renovation Nation beginning in June. The segment was filmed at the Lithia Springs plant in March, where GreenFiber Plant Manager Steve Martin led the crew through the process from which recycled paper becomes "some of the most durable and fireresistant insulation around," according to the episode preview.

The Community Paper Recycling Program is growing at a rapid pace, with 130 bins currently in place and a growing list of schools, churches and businesses awaiting bin delivery. Not only has the demand for bins increased, but fill rates continue to climb. For the month of June, the program topped the 100 ton mark for the first time.

In addition to a growing number of schools and churches waiting in line to participate in the popular, successful program, a number of other high-volume paper sources have come on board.

GreenFiber's Atlanta plant is being sought after by major companies, including Printpack, Inc. in Villa Rica, to help them with their paper and cardboard recycling needs. The Atlanta plant also signed its first contract with the Georgia Building Authority to service the University of West Georgia with its paper recycling.

The Atlanta plant is working with a number of county governments and their recycling arms to implement paper and cardboard recycling programs. Haralson County, adjacent to the Alabama line in West Georgia, and GreenFiber have partnered to spearhead the county's first recycling effort. Bins have been set up at all six of the county's convenience centers, the county courthouse and the county administration building.

GreenFiber bins have been located in neighboring Paulding County's recycling center, where 13 tons were collected in June. Plans call for GreenFiber bins to be located at the county's new courthouse facility when it opens in November.

GreenFiber's home county of Douglas continues to grow its relationship with GreenFiber. Its first collaboration was to service the county's lone convenience center in the southern portion of the county. In the first half of 2008, the center has generated an average of 8 tons per month of quality paper product. Most recently, bins have been added to serve the Douglas County courthouse and two of the county park facilities.

Sustainability efforts don't stop at the Atlanta plant with the community paper recycling program. The plant is also working with local recyclers to remove plastics from its waste stream by recycling its poly insulation bags and other plastics that find their way into the plant.

Elizabeth Byrd
Atlanta Collections Coordinator

Sustainability Can Be Fun!

Whoever said that improving our world had to be work? The effort to leave the world better than we found it is not always an easy task. The first thought that often crosses our mind is "This is going to be a lot of work and not a lot of fun". Our East St. Louis plant has taken this thought, and changed it to "It might be work, but we can sure have fun". The employees at the plant have been working diligently to reduce the amount of waste created by the plant. This includes reclaiming all wire from inbound paper bales, recycling stretch wrap from phone books, reclaiming bag film, and collecting any aluminum that comes through the door. This has helped to reduce the amount of solid waste going to the landfill by over 60 percent. It has also allowed the removal of a 40 yard refuse container from the plant, which has helped reduce their costs. Plant Manager, Tim Richter, said, "Education is a large key to the success of the program, and the employees have really bought into it. They see the improvements at the plant, and look for ways to contribute."

The result of the hard work by the employees led to a recent outing for all employees and families of the East St. Louis facility. Through the ingenuity of Donna Dugan and Nathan Casey, the plant reserved a suite at the local Grizzlies baseball stadium in Cahokia, IL. All of the employees and their families were invited to attend a Grizzlies baseball game while enjoying a buffet meal. Each employee in attendance was awarded a prize fitting of the outing.

The entire evening was provided by the employee's efforts to recycle and become more sustainable in their environment. "The employees saw that GreenFiber was willing to allow them some personal benefits for their efforts, and now they are as anxious as ever to continue to improve upon them", Tim said.

Through waste reduction, the plant has seen a reduction in their costs, while fostering a healthy and happy work force. It is great to see the benefits of sustainability from an economic standpoint, but even more important, it can be fun.

Dennis Pieper
Director,
Western Region Manufacturing

No Idling!

Fuel conservation is one of our major components of the Transportation Strategic Plan (TSP). As reported in an earlier newsletter, for every gallon of diesel fuel burned approximately 22.2 pounds of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.

Fuel usage is then a target for us in two areas, one being the overall reduction in consumption of diesel fuel to reduce our fuel expense and the other is to meet the sustainability initiative to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

The practice of allowing a diesel engine to idle while product is loaded or unloaded and while the driver is using the sleeper or doing paper work has been accepted as a fact of normal operating procedure. The high cost of fuel along with a growing focus on the emissions of greenhouses gases has brought this practice under the microscope. To date, 23 states along with various cities and counties have enacted legislation to limit the amount of time a diesel truck / tractor can be at idle. Most of these states and municipalities have set a maximum idling time at 5 minutes with some others that range from zero idling time to 15 minutes. In all cases, exceeding the idle time is a violation subject to a fine which ranges from $50 to $1,000. In the city of Aspen, CO. in addition to the $1,000 fine they can impose one year imprisonment.

GreenFiber has developed and put in place an idling policy which will reduce our internal fuel usage, the fuel consumption of our outside carriers and reduce greenhouse gases for both.

The GreenFiber "No Idling" policy restricts our vehicles to a maximum of five (5) minutes idling time, or less if by local ordinance. Each of our company drivers has received a copy of this policy. In addition to the written policy, all of our plants have received "No Idling" signs which have been placed in our loading/unloading areas as a reminder, not only to our drivers, but to enlist the cooperation of outside drivers/trucks that deliver or pick up from our plants.