digitaldots.info The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) is a suite of the world’s most influential indicators for corporate sustainability. They are considered the gold standard for sustainability and they are strict, with external audits, so they matter. Volkswagen has just been dumped because of its cheating on emissions tests, … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We are very good at recycling in the graphics industry: paper and aluminium are widely returned to the supply chain to be used as raw materials in other products. And manufacturers such as Ricoh and HP have programmes in place to reuse components in printing devices. But these … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner For years the graphics industry has been improving its environmental footprint, but not shouting about it much. Heidelberg’s introduction of LED drying technology for the European market is a case in point. LED drying of UV inks is an energy saver in more ways than one. LED technology … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner ISO is currently reviewing an important document, the ISO Guide 64. For the printing industry, and indeed all product manufacturers, this snappy tome makes for interesting-ish) reading. Its purpose is to explain how to take environmental concerns into account when creating product standards. The idea of Guide 64 … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner There are many approaches to paper recycling, but as a rule printing industry associations rarely get involved. The Japanese Federation of Printing Industries (JFPI) is an outstanding exception to this rule. One of the biggest difficulties for recycling supply chain efficiency is sorting. The JFPI has developed a … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Silver has been known to be antimicrobial since antiquity when water was stored in silver jugs to kill bacteria. More recently, silver nanoparticles are used in clothing to prevent socks and teeshirts getting stinky. Adding them to cardstock, as Dr. Theresa Dankovich post-doctoral associate at Carnegie Mellon University … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner We have been much occupied of late with a project to ensure that printed matter can be effectively recycled. It has to be said that standards work, and this work in particular, can be tedious beyond words. Other so very much more tempting options beckon. There’s the temptation … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The packaging industry is quite amazing in its complexity and poses an absolute chaos of problems and possibilities for packaging printers. One of the more slippery aspects of this industry sector is compliance with health and safety and especially with environmental regulations. These vary around the world both … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Recently we’ve been working on a document for ISO that assesses the deinkability of print. It’s been gruelling work and the cause of more than one sleepless night, not just because of difficulties to do with defining assessment criteria. It’s been a hard slog because this document has … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner One of the benefits of implementing an ISO standard or going for an environmental label is the management and process discipline it imposes. This may seem obvious, but labels and standards can be a useful tool for helping companies improve environmental management. In doing so, they often improve … Read more