What Happened in Doha?

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner With Kyoto about to expire and the main outcomes of Copenhagen withering, hopes were high for the recently-concluded Doha round of climate change talks. And there were some exciting outcomes. The big news is the “loss and damage” agreement for countries suffering as a result of climate change. … Read more

The IT Game & Counting its Cost

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Thanks to Agfa for pointing us at a recent article in the New York Times looking at the amount of energy the Internet consumes. Facebook, the main subject of the article, has to support over one billion users so the energy required for its servers is stupendous. So … Read more

The EU Wading into Footprinting

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner At the recent Carbon Challenge Event sponsored by BSI in London, Dr. Michele Galatola, Product Team Leader, DG Environment, of the European Commission presented plans to “establish a common methodological approach to enable Member States and the private sector to assess, display and benchmark the environmental performance of … Read more

Print’s Value Ads

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner According to WAN-Ifra only 2.2% of newspapers’ revenues come from digital platforms, which might come as a surprise to fans of digital media. Why is it that print on paper is still so attractive to advertisers, despite the burgeoning social media numbers? To understand this one has to … Read more

Slouching Towards Geneva

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It has been two years since we wrote the first draft of a standard for calculating the carbon footprint of print media. Quite amazingly the standard is in its final phase, prior to publication. It has passed its latest ballot with flying colours and will then be= nipped … Read more

A Matter of Policy

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Sustainability starts at home but it is surprising how many companies don’t have a company sustainability policy. A sustainability policy is a bit like a mission statement in that it provides a commitment to an ideal or at least to a goal. Like a mission statement though a … Read more

Tiny Steps Turn into Strides

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner For many consumers battling with economic hardship, the environment has fallen down their list of priorities. But businesses seem not to be losing faith in such numbers. Those printing companies who are managing to keep their heads above water, have got the message the reducing environmental impact is … Read more

The European Union’s Ecolabel

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner After many years of prognostication the European Union has published its specification for an Ecolabel for products and services, excluding food and pharmaceuticals. This is a voluntary label designed to promote improved environmental performance. The idea is that consumers will choose products and services whose environmental impact on … Read more

Seven Cardinal Innovations for a Sustainable Planet

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The graphic arts industry often gets slammed for the waste and excess emissions it generates. Yet the printing industry is already implementing the Seven Cardinal Innovations as outlined by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research. This organisation is heavy on research and academics, but has a proactive engagement … Read more

Deinking Drama

The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It seems we rather hit a nerve with last week’s blog which isn’t so very surprising. That’s the trouble with blogging: not much room to develop an argument or adequately cover all sides of a problem. The blog’s purpose had been to highlight the dangers of denigrating digital … Read more