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 In January Danish Members of Parliament (MPs) will vote on draft legislation to tax commercial print. The tax will make print cost 25-50% more and is being imposed to discourage print’s use, on the basis that it is bad for the environment. If it goes through, this tax … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Computing used to be something we all paid attention to and mostly understood. We knew what processor powered a Mac or a PC or a server, and we completely got the difference between Ethernet and IBM’s Token Ring for instance. It was long ago, but in years gone … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Environmental stewardship sounds impressive. It comes down to the basics of managing the business with a view to waste and cost control and environmental impact. There are loads of printing and publishing companies around the world positioning themselves in this way; sometimes they live up to the images … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner In most progressive rock music, movement through its sound doesn’t necessarily happen smoothly or obviously. Often it is made in unexpected and unanticipated ways, which is the way of progress in most situations. Progress happens with little steps. We recently came across a lovely example of how it … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Does this sound like an impossible task? Of course it does, but it has to be done if the media industry wants to be able to benchmark and monitor its carbon footprint. We have managed to develop an ISO standard for calculating the carbon footprint of print media … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner For people who are obsessive recyclers and composters, it’s very annoying when organic matter refuses to cooperate. Instead of rotting quietly away in the depths of the bin, things like avocado skins and lemons just sit there, defiant and unchanging. No matter how long you leave them, they … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner Prepress used to be an expensive and time consuming business. But over the years, process automation has steadily ground down prices. Software now takes care of much of what high ticket professionals used to handle. This means that today the most expensive bit of prepress is in making … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The US based Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP) provides certification to confirm a printing company’s conformance to specific sustainability goals. The organisation has now certified over 50 American printers for compliance to its programme. What makes the SGP initiative interesting is the range of criteria it uses for … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The European Commission is forging ahead with its plans to develop its own Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Corporate Environmental Footprint (CEF) rules. This must be costing taxpayers a bomb, but it’s proceeding even though the need is questionable. The EU is ignoring existing and proven specifications such … Read more
The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner The printing and publishing industries have been pretty immune to consultants and their management buzzwords. But maybe it’s time to put the scepticism aside as there’s a lot they can offer, especially for managing environmental impact. Coming slowly into favour are the principles of supply chain management which … Read more