Here you will find blogs from Digital Dots and Verdigris covering technology and sustainability advances in the graphics industry over the last 25 years.
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It’s taken a while but interest in calculating the carbon footprint of print is starting to rise. Brand supply teams are finally showing mild engagement with the idea of carbon footprinting their prints, because it could improve production efficiencies and their bottom lines. Fortunately we have ISO 16759 … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Nailing down what makes a system sustainable or not exercises some of the best brains on the planet. Mostly this is in response to the threats of climate change, but the graphics industry’s sustainability credentials are mostly based on responses to existential threats. The industry has been blessed … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It’s the graphics industry’s most anticipated show. It’s the lynchpin show that has for years dictated research and development schedules, marketing budgets and contract signings. Attendance has been in slow but relentless decline since Drupa’s 1980s heyday, but this does little to diminish the show’s power to focus … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Important as they might be to us as individuals, environmental impact mitigation and sustainability concerns have much lower priority when it comes to most businesses. Say what they like, but if supporting environmental initiatives means adding cost or inconvenience, most firms are unlikely to take them up. It’s … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is following the European Union (EU) in committing to phase out single use plastics. The NDRC has announced a number of bans including of plastic bags and a cut of 30% in single use plastics in restaurants by 2025. Hotels must … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Everyone in the graphics industry depends on Microsoft and Apple to provide the software infrastructure so vital to prepress and workflows. Apple’s commitment to environmental impact mitigation is extensively publicised but we hear relatively little from Microsoft on the matter. That changed with Microsoft’s recent announcement that it … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Consolidation in the graphics industry has been a fact of life for many years now. It’s tempting to blame the losses on the onslaught of digital media and delivery, despite it’s heavy carbon footprint compared to print. Consolidation is tragic for its many victims and their families, but … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner In December 2019, the European Union (EU) announced that it is investing €100 billion to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. By climate-neutral the EU means that emissions will be balanced with the removal of warming gases from the atmosphere. This is an ambitious undertaking. Much … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner It’s been a depressing few weeks when it comes to making progress on climate change, for the graphics business as well as everyone else. The recent COP25 was widely panned for the lack of consensus on some pretty basic issues, and for a paucity of outcomes for the … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Newspapers are struggling still as they wrestle with new business models that shift from printed copy sales to digital delivery. The environmental impact of digital media is largely unquantified, but obviously digital media generate emissions throughout their lives. Print on the other hand, has a one-off carbon footprint … Read more