PREPS (Publishers Database For Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing)

The PREPS Secretariat is managed by Acona, a management consultancy that specialises in Corporate Responsibility. Acona manages the PREPS Forum meetings and seminar, maintains dialogue with paper manufacturers to gather pulp and forest source information, and acts as a central point of contact for the group when interacting with external stakeholders such as certification bodies, NGOs, Government departments, and paper companies.

The PREPS database is password-protected and can only be accessed by members. If you’re interested in joining PREPS, please contact us.

There are two levels of PREPS membership; Entry level and Full member.

Full members can:

• Attend the quarterly Forum meetings where they have voting rights on group developments
• Attend the annual seminars
• Access the database to look up technical specifications and the PREPS grades of papers.

Full members have three levels of access to the database:

• Super Users: can see the most detailed forest source information for papers, add papers as favourites, and request new paper brands
• Extended Users: can see less detailed forest source information and can add papers as favourites. Cannot request new papers.
• Normal Users: can only see the technical specifications and PREPS grade of papers. Cannot add favourites.

Entry level members can:

• Attend the annual seminars
• Access the database to look up technical specifications and PREPS grades of papers

Entry level members only have one level of access to the database, which is equal to that of a Normal User. This access is also limited to specific IP addresses.

Access to the database at all levels, whether a Full or Entry-level member, enables you to:

• Compare one paper’s credentials with another side-by-side; and
• Search the entire database according to PREPS grade, weight, country of origin, or even specific technical specifications.

This is something that we can arrange with you on an individual basis. Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements.

• Full membership in 2010/11 is £4,487 + VAT.
• Entry level membership in 2010/11 is £2,244 + VAT.

Fees are charged on a pro rata basis if new members join part-way through the year. For more detail please read the process document or contact us.

The PREPS Secretariat requests the pulp and forest source information for specific paper brands. These brands have been identified by the publishers as a paper they are currently using, or would like to use in the future. The Secretariat will ask you to either complete an Excel spreadsheet with the relevant information, or will give you the option of logging on to the database itself to submit your data. You can choose whichever option is most convenient.

The Secretariat is acting on behalf of the whole group of PREPS members who want to understand where the paper in their books is from. The information you provide is used to grade the paper according to the PREPS grading system. This grade can then be used by the publishers when making their buying decisions. More detail on how the grading process works can be found on our process page or in the process document.

The database that holds the information is password protected and only accessible by the publisher members. Even the highest level of publisher user (Super Users) cannot see information such as pulp brand names. Any information sent to Acona on Excel spreadsheets are stored on a secure server.

Administrator users, i.e. the Secretariat at Acona, will see the raw data as you provide it. Publisher users vary according to the levels of detail they can see:

• Super Users: see the most detail down to the forest sources, but cannot see pulp names
• Extended Users: see less detail than Super Users
• Normal Users: can only see paper technical specifications and the overall PREPS grade of the paper

The Secretariat aims to keep papers updated every 12 months to account for any changes, particularly where market pulp is used. However, if you have made a recent change to the pulp mixes then please do contact the Secretariat and we will update the paper as soon as possible.

By engaging with PREPS and supplying information, your papers will be visible to the production teams of 20 major book and journal publishers. All the papers on the database are fully searchable by brand name, description, and technical specifications. All of this makes your papers more accessible to the publishers using the system.

Another benefit to engaging with PREPS is the lack of repetition. By supplying the information to PREPS you are answering a question once, instead of answering it on 20 separate occasions. We hope that this will cut down your workload.

No. The database is currently only open to publishers.

The publisher should provide you with a list of paper options that meet their requirements. As a printer you do not have access to the database so cannot look up papers or their current grades.