America’s

Greenback
An Environmental
Perspective
Welcome
United States currency plays a significant role in the daily
lives of every American. We earn it, we spend it, we save
it. We accept it at face value as it passes from hand to
hand. And except when the look of our bills change, we
rarely contemplate that there might be more to our
currency than ink on paper.

Just like our fellow citizens, United States currency paper

plays a significant role in the daily lives of my family and
the families of our employees. We earn it, spend it and we
save it. But most important of all, we make it.

We have made paper for currency for more than 230 years. Paul Revere was our first customer
in 1776. Neither he nor Stephen Crane, who made the paper for him, contemplated the
environmental implications of papermaking. To be honest, it would take several generations.

But more than 50 years ago, before Silent Spring, before the EPA and before Earth Day,
members of the Crane family took a look over the horizon and began making some ground-
breaking changes to create a well-managed balance between stewardship of their business and
stewardship of their environment.

We are proud of what we have accomplished over the years, and are happy for the
opportunity to share these accomplishments with you. But we also remain vigilant for
opportunities to improve our environmental performance while making the highest-quality,
most sought-after paper in the world.

Sincerely,

Charles Kittredge
President and Chief Executive Officer

G
Left: Recovered cotton and
flax fibers are the tree-free
raw materials from which
Crane makes United States
currency paper.
Above, right: Crane’s first
advertisement in 1801,
soliciting recycled household
rags.
Crane’s Raw Materials – Tree-Free
Since the American Revolution, Crane has made its currency and banknote
papers exclusively from tree-free raw materials – cotton and linen. Back
then, cotton and linen rags were the only viable materials available to
papermakers. It wasn’t until the 1870s that trees were cut to make paper.
Crane made a conscious choice then to continue making its papers from
cotton and linen, developing unique expertise with these fibers. The
percentages of cotton and linen have varied over the years, but these two
fibers remain the foundation for U.S. currency paper.
Crane uses several forms of cotton fibers for currency paper. The vast
majority is recovered from the solid-waste stream. We use waste cotton that
is not suitable for textiles, and the trimmings from cotton garment manufac-
turers. These fibers are supplemented by staple cotton grown in the
Southwest.
Crane no longer uses linen rags for U.S. currency paper, but rather the flax
fibers that are not suitable for the manufacture of linen textiles.
There are several advantages in using these fibers to make U.S. currency
paper, in addition to the fact that they are tree-free. Cotton and flax are
readily renewable, and Crane has spent generations developing the
infrastructures necessary to recover waste fibers. Because of their inherent OVER
purity, they generate a much higher percentage of papermaking fiber and G THE HORIZON
create less waste in the papermaking process than other raw materials. Crane continues to seek out cleaner
forms of cotton and flax waste
It also happens that cotton and flax make one of the most durable papers, a
to reduce the amount of waste
necessary trait for U.S. currency paper. Among the myriad requirements for
strength and durability of currency paper is the “double-fold” test. Currency generated and energy used by its raw
paper must exceed 4,000 double folds. Any normal paper might survive 400. material and papermaking processes.

G
Clockwise from upper left:
Bales of recovered cotton
fibers awaiting processing;
a giant pressure boiler cooks
out impurities; a pulper
(hence “beaten to a pulp”)
breaks down the cotton and
flax into individual fibers;
the textile fibers are
bleached and finally formed
into thick sheets ready for
the paper machine.
Processing Cotton and Flax
Before cotton and flax fibers can be made into paper, they must be refined chemically and
mechanically. Even through cotton and flax are high-yield fibers, there are impurities that
must be removed before the final papermaking process.
Cotton fibers are protected from rain by a natural oil that needs to be stripped off prior to
further processing. Since the majority are waste fibers, they arrive with small pieces of leaves
and stems. Bales of flax contain portions of the plant stem that have been combed out during
the textile-making process. All of these impurities must be eliminated so they don’t end up
contaminating the final product.
To tackle these impurities, Crane literally “cooks” its cotton and flax fibers
in a large vessel using a solution of sodium hydroxide, commonly known as OVER
lye. Over a period of an hour or two, the oils and other contaminants are G THE HORIZON
cooked away, leaving a much purer collection of papermaking fibers. Crane continues to investigate
reduction in the use of both sodium
From this point, since the waterproofing oils have been removed, Crane’s
raw materials can now interact with water for further refining. First, they are
hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite.
cut to a shorter length, then run through a series of cleaners to remove any Hydrogen peroxide has been evaluated
contaminants not cooked away earlier. To achieve necessary levels of bright- for use in cotton rag processing, and
ness, cotton and flax are whitened using sodium hypochlorite, the same the feasibility for its use in the process
chemical used in household bleach.
is being explored.
From here, about half of the water in the fiber slurry is pressed out, with the
resulting processed raw materials ready to be shipped to the paper mill.

G Today’s wastewater treatment plant is a state-of-the-art chemical, physical
Clockwise from upper left:
Cotton and flax fibers not
suitable for papermaking are
processed in Crane’s waste-
water treatment facility;
water is first removed by
suction and gravity; then
by intense mechanical
pressure; the dewatered
waste fibers are composted
with leaf and yard waste to
create topsoil. Clean water
is discharged to the
Housatonic River.
Waste
It was noted in our introduction that 50 years ago Crane began taking steps to reduce its
impact on the environment. The first major initiative was to divert the waste generated by
the papermaking process from the Housatonic River. The industry’s first wastewater treatment
facility was primitive by today’s standards, but was a very visible statement from a family-
owned business about what could be accomplished outside of a regulatory framework. Crane
undertook this initiative for several reasons:
G Appropriate technology had finally become available
OVER
G They saw that sometime down the road, it would be required
G THE HORIZON
G It was the right thing to do now
Because Crane’s waste materials
are organic in nature, Crane is
and biological facility designed to treat up to 7 million gallons of water per investigating their use as a feedstock
day, while removing 99% of suspended and dissolved organic solids.
to create biomass energy.
Once these organic materials left over from the pulp and papermaking
processes are removed from the water discharged to the Housatonic, they become a raw mate-
rial for a new product rather than an environmental liability. After several years of research
and trials, Crane’s organic papermaking waste was certified by the state and federal govern-
ments for land
application. At Crane’s wastewater facility, water is pressed out of the solids, then transported
to a nearby composting operation where they are mixed with municipal leaf and yard waste.
The end product – top soil – is used throughout the Northeast as the final cover for decom-
missioned landfills.
 Energy
Papermaking is an energy-intensive business. Crane uses several sources of
energy in its U.S. currency papermaking operations, including electricity, OVER
natural gas and fuel oil. G THE HORIZON
Crane is exploring the potential for an
But Crane has used renewable energy to make currency paper for almost 30 alternative-energy industrial park which
years. In a ground-breaking initiative similar to creation of the first waste-
water treatment facility, in 1979, Crane entered into an agreement with a
would house biomass energy production
fledgling waste-to-energy business called Vicon. An incineration plant was and biodiesel manufacturing facilities.
constructed on land Crane sold to Vicon for $1. The “Energy from Waste” Crane is also investigating the
plant incinerates municipal refuse to generate steam used for the company feasibility of reintroducing hydroelectric
manufacturing operations. From 1981 to 1994, Crane pumped its papermak-
production at one of its dams on the
ing waste to a dewatering device located at the Vicon Plant for incinera-
tion. Crane agreed to purchase the steam generated by the facility. Housatonic which was first used to
G produce power in 1881.
Clockwise from upper left: Through this partnership, Crane was able to reduce its dependence on oil to
Crane purchases 70 percent generate steam. Vicon could also use their facility to attract greater volumes
of waste material from around the region, thereby significantly reducing solid
of its papermaking energy
waste in landfills while producing renewable energy.
from a nearby waste-to-
energy facility it helped Today, more than 70 percent of the energy used to making U.S. currency paper
create 30 years ago; steam comes from that same waste-to-energy facility. As a result, Crane saves more
than 2 million gallons of oil per year and emits up to 78 percent fewer green-
generated is used in large
house gases.
part to dry United States
currency paper; a steam
line along the Housatonic
River delivering energy to
the mills.

G drawn primarily from the underlying Limestone Aquifer via deep wells.
Left: This double-arch tail
race passes underneath part
of the former Old Stone
Mill, now the Crane
Museum of Papermaking.
Right: The artist Nat White
depicts young Zenas Crane
as he admires the purity of
the Housatonic River prior
to opening his mill in 1801.
Water – Crane’s First Resource
Alongside quality raw materials, clean water is an essential component
for papermaking. Returning it to the environment as clean as possible is
an essential responsibility. Abundant clean water is why Zenas Crane
decided to locate his paper mill here in Dalton. It is among the reasons
we continue to make U.S. currency paper here in Dalton.
Papermaking is a water-intensive process. Fibers must first be cleaned
and refined using water as a suspension medium. To properly form
currency paper on the paper machine, stock must contain about
99 percent water and 1 percent fiber. By the time paper arrives at the
end of the machine, it will contain only 5 percent water.
U.S. currency paper requires up to 1 million gallons of water per day,
One might think that water is a cheap, even free, resource. But water
needs to be moved from one place to another. It needs to be heated and
it needs to be cooled. It needs to be treated before being discharged.
Every use of water requires energy, so it makes sense to devise ways to
reduce the amount of water used and the energy put into it.
Crane has equipped several papermaking operations with fiber and water
recovery systems that allow water to be captured and reused for appropriate processes. For
instance, a portion of the water used to process raw materials is recovered and used during the
refining of fibers. A portion of that water is recovered for other operations. At each step of
the manufacturing process where recovery is possible, the quality of the water is monitored to
determine its next best use.
Water is also an excellent medium to store heat. Where appropriate, Crane is able to capture
heat used in the papermaking process and extract it to heat water for later processing thereby
saving not just water but energy as well.

G make U.S. currency paper. In 2004, the company granted a conservation ease-
Left: Taking down the Old
Berkshire Dam restored
more than one mile of the
Housatonic River to its
original course. Right: Part
of the Appalachian Trail
corridor passes through The
Boulders, a 634-acre
preserve created on Crane’s
non-manufacturing land.
Stewardship of the Environs
As the largest land-holder, largest employer and largest consumer of resources in the area,
Crane recognizes that not only its manufacturing operations, but also its conduct as a
corporate citizen greatly impact the quality of the environment and the quality of life of the
community in which it operates.
As a family business, Crane many times is able to take a longer-term perspective on how it
operates as a business and as a citizen. The company can look beyond its balance sheet and
make decisions based on the quality of life of its community.
In 1993, Crane created The Boulders Conservation Area on 634 of its more
than 1,300 acres of non-manufacturing land. The Boulders lies in three towns
and includes part of the Appalachian Trail corridor as well as the direct
recharge area for the Limestone Aquifer from which Crane draws its water to
ment to the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game to ensure that the
property would be protected and open to the public in perpetuity.
Also in that year, Crane and the Housatonic Valley Associated partnered
together to develop a Dalton Hinsdale Housatonic River Greenway. Crane
donated land for the trail for a low-impact walkway that emphasizes the fragile
surrounding natural resources and the history and culture of the river.
In November of 2000, Crane formally decommissioned its Old Berkshire Dam
on the Housatonic. The dam was first built by the company’s founder Zenas
Crane in 1801 to provide water for an overshot waterwheel. Crane made its
first banknotes in Dalton in 1806 with power generated by this dam. Two
hundred years later, Crane became the first Massachusetts company to remove
a dam on their property. By taking down the dam, Crane restored more than a
mile of river to its original free-flowing state.
 Crane’s Environmental Timeline
1952: Crane becomes involved in an environmental research and
development program with the National Council for Air
and Stream Improvement. Crane is still a member of the
Council.
1954: Crane retains environmental consultants Malcolm Pirnie
Associates to assist development of its first wastewater
treatment facility.
1960: All Crane wastewater, previously discharged into the
Housatonic River is collected and treated at a central
waste water treatment facility.
1968: Additions made to Crane’s wastewater treatment facility
to further treat effluent.
1981: Crane partners with waste-to-energy company to use Crane’s
papermaking waste as a source of renewable steam energy.
1985: Water conservation projects begun to reuse water used in the
raw materials processing and papermaking operations.
1986: Secondary treatment added to wastewater treatment.
G
Finished currency paper
including the water mark
and security thread for the
twenty dollar bill is ready
to ship to the Bureau of
Engraving.
1990: All PCBs eliminated from the company. Chlorinated
solvents banned from operations.
1992: Crane undertakes energy-reduction program designed to
reduce the company’s electric consumption.
1993: Papermaking waste materials approved for composting and
land application.
1994: Crane creates The Boulders Conservation Area in partner-
ship with the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game.
The 634-acre property is dedicated to public recreation in
perpetuity while protecting local aquifers.
1998: Crane’s Environmental Affairs Department becomes one of
the first in the industry to be registered to IOS 14001
International Environmental Management Standards.
2000: Crane removes Old Berkshire Dam, restoring more than one
mile of the Housatonic River to its original free-flowing
condition. Crane was the first Massachusetts company to
remove a dam.
2004: Crane and Housatonic Valley Association partner to
develop the Dalton Hinsdale Housatonic River Greenway
for public access and educational opportunities for local
schools.
2007: Crane signs leases with two alternative-energy development
companies to generate electricity from biomass and to
manufacture biodiesel.