Domtar Corporation launched its "Paper Trail" online environmental tool Tuesday to let customers see the environmental impact of the paper they order and understand what it takes to make it.

Actually, you don't have to purchase paper to use the tool at www.domtarpapertrail.com. You can input the name of the Domtar product you're considering and select a weight, paper size and an amount, which in some cases can be a single sheet or tons of the stuff.

Based on that information, the calculator tells you what mills process the paper and what the environmental impact of the paper order would be in terms of water use, the distance the fiber traveled to get to a mill, Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions, waste generation and energy used in manufacturing. The tool also says how those impacts compare with industry averages.

"We know consumers are increasingly aware of their effect on the environment and want to know where their paper comes from," said Lewis Fix, Domtar's vice president of Sustainable Business and Brand Management, in a statement yesterday announcing the launch. "We think we have a good story to tell, and part of that story is being transparent."

The Paper Trail calculator provides environmental information on Domtar's EarthChoice Office and Cougar products and the mills that make them, and the company said more products and facilities are likely to be added.

The online tool offered by Domtar, which was named one of Canada's top three corporate citizens by Corporate Knights magazine, won't be alone in providing a sustainability backstory for paper products.

In February, New Leaf Paper and Office Depot introduced a tool that will enable customers and prospective buyers to track the carbon trail of Office Depot EnviroCopy paper sourced through New Leaf by using a smart phone to scan a QR code -- a small black-and-white square -- printed on the wrapper.

New Leaf Paper founder and CEO Jeff Mendelsohn and Yalmaz Siddiqui, director of environmental strategy at Office Depot, unveiled the technology at the GreenBiz Group's 2011 State of Green Business Forum. Their presentation on the tool, which is expected to go live later this year, is available here.

Image courtesy of Domtar Corporation.