Printing is a blindspot

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner As ISO standards writers, it’s always interesting to us to find that lists of industrial sectors rarely include printing. The British Standards Institute (BSI) for instance, boasts of standards for a range of categories but printing is not identified as one. Finding standards such as the ISO 12647 series … Read more

FESPA and ISO 20121 Sustainable event management certification

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Management systems standards such as IS0 9001 (Management Systems) and ISO 14001 (Environmental management systems) are amongst the International Standards Organisation’s (ISO) best sellers. But these documents are also the most onerous and demanding for companies going for formal certification. ISO 20121 is for sustainable event management systems. Since … Read more

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Sounds gripping and for most printing companies the GRI is just that. Not. But it not being gripping doesn’t mean that the GRI isn’t important, or that it will have no impact on the printing and publishing industries. The organisation behind the initiative is large and well supported and … Read more

How sustainable are trade shows?

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner In the printing and publishing industries, the exhibition business had many years of growth and fat success. We can look back on the glory days of IPEX, Imprinta, Ifra, ANPA, and of course drupa just to name a few. And we can remember their powerful pull on all parts … Read more

Change your thinking

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Printing companies, print buyers, print users, all of us are stuck in a sustainability rut. Recent technology advances, mainly in inkjet printing and finishing, follow massive upheavals digital technology has wrought on all three communities, and have made the industry more sustainable. Increased commercial sustainability has definitely driven increased … Read more

2K/Denmark getting back to basics

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It’s been a long time since we heard a company talk about typesetting, rather than page layout. However a small Danish company is doing just that, with a view to improving print’s sustainability. 2K/Denmark has not so much developed a new technology. Rather it leverages digital prepress technology to … Read more

EcoFillX cutting waste during platemaking

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Materials science is one of the most dynamic areas of development for improving print’s environmental sustainability. But it’s a relatively new idea to use software to control the amount of material surface waste generated during plate making. XSYS, a specialist developer of flexo plates, sleeves and adapters, with a … Read more

20 years of Sonora technology

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It’s been twenty years since the introduction of Kodak’s Sonora plate technology. Two decades during which time the printing industry has undergone massive upheavals. 2004 saw the start of considerable consolidation amongst makers of printing plates, consolidation which continued for many years. Who now remembers Ipagsa or Southern Litho? … Read more

Where do you start with sustainability? 

The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The basics of what companies in the printing and publishing sectors should be doing to be more sustainable are really not that hard. They’re common sense in many ways, because they are about conserving resources and minimising waste. But they can be easy to overlook if the whole topic … Read more