VANCOUVER—A new report from Canopy called the Green Print Leadership Report profiles printers at the forefront of paper procurement, forest conservation, and sustainability reporting.

The report is the culmination of the not-for-profit organization's survey-based search for North America's greenest print companies. Instead of ranking businesses in numerical order, however, it features overviews of stand-out companies and their environmental policies, including TC Transcontinental, EarthColor, Hemlock and Sandy Alexander.

"This acknowledgement firms up our commitment to stay the course on our journey, and will hopefully inspire others in our industry to join the cause," said Hemlock's Dick Kouwenhoven, chair and chief executive officer, in a release.

According to Canopy's Neva Murtha, 36 companies participated in the survey, representing 250 North American printing plants. And while over 90% of that sample have sustainability policies in place, Murtha points out that the industry can do better in making these policies accessible for promotion and customer scrutiny - only 42% of companies with policies in place have made that info publicly available, she noted.

"Canopy is committed to collaborating with printers to do just that, by working with them on strong forest conservation policy development, implementation and transparent reporting," Murtha said in a statement.

Among the survey's findings: 12 companies say they support research and development of straw paper; 17 say they support using paper with cleaner bleaching technologies; 26 state they offer 100% recycled house sheets; 21 printers say they preference paper that does not come from endangered species habitat.

The Green Print Leadership Report will be circulated to business leaders including Random House, Time and Sprint, as well as existing and potential customers including the more than 700 Canopy signatory companies. It will also be shared with the top 100 printing companies on Printing Impressions' 2012 Top 400 list. To download a PDF of the report, visit the Canopy website.