The weekly Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
Well it’s finally over. Despite the ever present risk of abject failure, the twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP21) is being hailed as a resounding success. And it is a success, because for the first time we have something approaching global consensus on how to protect the planet for future generations. Participating governments and businesses seem to recognise that apart from being necessary for the health of the planet, responding to climate change creates opportunities. With governments committed to creating favourable conditions, investors have an incentive to support innovation and what the COP21 people call “bottom-up solutions to support the global agreement on climate change”.
Change requires engagement from small businesses, so we must keep raising awareness of environmentally friendly media production. And we must keep encouraging printers and publishers to develop robust environmental policies. One approach is to create a community of interests, as we are doing with the Verdigris project. COP21 saw the launch of L’Appel de Paris, the Paris Pledge for Action.
This pledge is for nongovernment interests including cities, companies and investors. All are encouraged to sign up to confirm their commitment to supporting the COP21 agreement. The pledge is unfortunately, but perhaps necessarily, vague but it’s a start. Find out more about it at: https://www.parispledgeforaction.org/
We have come up with some specifics on how printers might support the COP21 agreement. Whatever we do in the graphics industry must be easily achievable for small businesses, so here are some simple ideas for what printers and publishers, large and small, might do:
- measure and track quarterly emissions to establish a benchmark for reduction goals (use your energy bills);
- invest in production process improvements to cut waste and improve efficiency (specify PDF settings for instance);
- establish recycling procedures for all departments;
- support car pooling and public transport use;
- develop an environmental policy (share it with staff and customers);
- have regular management reviews of your environmental policy and impact and think of how to improve it;
- encourage staff to come up with ideas for reducing the company’s carbon footprint;
- tighten up data driven processes such as colour management to improve efficiency and reduce waste, and
- teach yourself, customers and colleagues about how to make an environmental impact difference.
This is a just a start and companies serious about improving environmental impact, already do most of it. They lead the industry, having either developed their own standards, or by following ISO standards. For many small businesses this approach is easiest because the work’s already done. Take a closer look at ISO 9001 (Quality management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management), ISO 16759 (Calculating the carbon footprint of print media) and ISO 12647 (Process control). They help companies improve environmental impact and profitability, and consequently to support the COP21 agreement. It’s progress in tiny steps, but progress nonetheless.
– Laurel Brunner
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