Laurel Brunner

If you wanted to put a green label on a printing company, what would you look for? The usual differentiator amongst printers is compliance and ideally formal certification to ISO 14001. Compliance to this environmental management standard is based on a company’s environmental policy and how well the organisation conforms to that policy. There are requirements for management reviews and documentation, but this may not be enough to certify the overall greenness of a particular business.

If we were to develop such a standard, ISO 14001 would obviously be the reference for environmental management systems. In addition to ISO 14001 companies might also be asked to demonstrate other sustainability commitments, commitments that go beyond managing environmental aspects and impacts, and ensuring quality and safety.

However the details of what gets included in the environmental policy required by ISO 14001 determines how ambitious and comprehensive that policy is. Within the scope of 14001 it can go beyond prevention of pollution and minimising environmental impacts. The underlying principle for ISO 14001 is one of continuous improvement, so each time a company goes through the audit process it’s measured on the business’s new targets. Those targets, enshrined in the environmental policy, reach ever further into the organisation. Properly implemented the environmental management policy should enhance environmental performance, and fulfil environmental objectives and compliance obligations.

This means that ISO 14001 is enough, if we can assume that companies develop comprehensive environmental policies and live up to them. The trouble is that we cannot make such assumptions, so there may be an argument for a new standard specifying what an environmental policy should cover. And it should be ambitious, because certification to a combined ISO 14001, plus an environmental policy standard would confer the ultimate green status.

Take a packaging company for example, producing millions of filled flexible packages every month. Its environmental management policy would include requirements for accepting bulk deliveries, a process that would have to be managed to be environmentally sound. This might mean route planning which requires cooperation with shipping companies and their other customers. And then there is the loading and distribution process which would also need an environmentally benign process.

This packaging company would also have to consider such things as ingredient preparation and filling. Not only should the processes be efficient and minimise emissions and waste. There is also the consideration of consumer safety, and overall stability of the packaging and contents.

It could all be included as part of ISO 14001, but perhaps there is an argument for a series of ISO standards that specify the environmental policy requirements for different sectors of the printing industry. Such a series would be far from easy to write, but it could improve uptake of ISO 14001 and print’s overall environmental impact.

The Verdigris project is an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. It provides a weekly commentary to help printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigirs is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, Digital Dots, EFI, Fespa, HP, Kodak, Ricoh, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.

– Laurel Brunner

The Verdigris project is an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. It provides a weekly commentary to help printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigirs is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, Digital Dots, EFI, Fespa, Heidelberg, HP, Kodak, Ricoh, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon

The addition of ink to paper causes difficulties with current recycling models. It is unrealistic to expect people to sort papers according to how they are inked prior to recycling them. But the addition of chemicals to paper impedes its reuse, because removing them damages the fibre, which constrains its use in future applications. There are apparently over 6,000 chemical compounds used in printing inks, so this is a big problem. Its scale, plus trends in the graphic arts, suggest that recycling processes have to change. They must be able to handle a constantly varying combination of inks and chemicals, so that the fibre can be reused.

This is especially important for digital printing papers, inks and toners, which use often quite complex chemical formulations. In the sign and display market for example, some applications require extreme scratch resistance and durability. Desirable application characteristics may severe restrict the print’s recyclability, once it reaches end of life. What is needed is recycling processes that support the diversity of printing technologies, inks and substrates, including digital. Recycling in the graphics industry needs a new approach, one that supports the chemical and substrate diversity of modern print.

The WEF’s white paper suggests that print buyers and printing companies should be “Riding the Fibre”. This sounds like a slogan for health food, but it’s meant to convey the perspective of paper fibres. The WEF asks people to consider print investment decisions in a series of don’ts, such as “don’t attach that to me or I’ll be thrown away” and “don’t attach that to me – getting rid of it might consume a lot of energy”. The paper provides guidelines so that we can consider substrates, inks, coatings, primers and production methods, with an eye to how effectively paper based print media projects can be recycled.

The problem with all of this is that it assumes people will bother to learn about recycling processes and make decisions accordingly. It also assumes that recycling processes are the same in every region, and that companies and their customers have control. This is one of the important lessons we have learnt about sustainability: control of every stage in the process is impossible for most of us. Still, little by little we move forward.

Laurel Brunner

The Verdigris project is an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. It provides a weekly commentary to help printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, Digital Dots, EFI, Fespa, Heidelberg, HP, Kodak, Ricoh, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.

Ricoh has recently launched a very robust sustainable products program. The program evaluates the environmental performance and usability of Ricoh products against various, as yet unspecified, standards. The evaluation criteria include energy and manufacturing resource efficiency, packaging recyclability and the use of chemicals in the product’s design. Ricoh issues certificates to compliant products, confirming their green-ness.

The initiative is the latest addition to Ricoh’s environmental impact reduction strategy, which has been in place for many years. The company has set a couple of key dates and targets. By 2020 the Ricoh Group’s total lifecycle CO2 emissions will be down by 30% and by 2050 they’ll be 87.5% lower compared with the 2000 level. The development of a sustainable products scheme and the associated certification program helps Ricoh to gather data to help monitor the company’s progress.

The usability bit of this program is not just about having snazzy and intuitive user interfaces. For Ricoh, usability covers the comfort of workers in an office or factory where the company’s machines are running. They mustn’t be too loud or generate too much heat, and they must also suit old as well as young operators, the disabled and able bodied alike. This category of references for certifications might be rather tricky to define, but it’s a worthy goal. Will it extend to those of us who are horizontally challenged, one has to wonder?

Ricoh is one of a handful of companies serving the graphics industry to have gone so far to ensure the environmental friendliness of its products. It actively pursues environmental awards such as the US Energy Star, Germany’s Blue Angel and the Eco Mark in Japan. Ricoh’s new program will start with office imaging products and production printers such as the Pro VC60000. The company will publish the results of its assessments and certifications, as they become avaialble.

Adding usability and environmental friendliness to the sustainability conversation takes Ricoh in a slightly different direction. It will be interesting to see how customers respond, and whether they too consider usability as part of the environmental impact debate.

– Laurel Brunner

The Verdigris project is an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. It provides a weekly commentary to help printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigirs is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, Digital Dots, EFI, Fespa, Heidelberg, HP, Kodak, Ricoh, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.