Prompted by the US EPA report, which revealed that toxins caused cancer and could also disrupt the hormone systems of people and wildlife, the Women's Division began to work to change the policy on all paper and cleaning product purchases and usages throughout the Church. The division began with building awareness within the church community and progressed to researching alternative products and their costs, an effort that including analysing the possibility of getting involved in the manufacturing of the paper they needed. The Women's Division then began persuading church organisations, which represent congregations totalling seven million people, to make the move to chlorine-free products. Advocating for more active implementation by using itself as a model, the Women's Division adopted a chlorine-free policy, as well as a set of environmental principles that govern all of its operations. It's as easy as changing your copy paper.
Alternatives do exist.
The Women's Division then began a programme in which it asked members to learn about the availability of chlorine-free paper at Kinko's, the US's leading reproduction and copy chain. The chain had advertised that such chlorine-free choices were available. When the programmme revealed that only about 25 per cent of Kinko's stores offered the paper, Sparr and other division officials contacted the Kinko's head office. After presenting their findings, Kinko's agreed to have chlorine-free paper available at every store. And the effort is getting attention at the grassroots level, too.