The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
Sustainability could be falling down the business agenda, despite evidence of rising climate change urgency. But commercial and environmental sustainability are intertwined and although some organisations and industry associations have sort of addressed it, action needs to be faster and reach further. The climate emergency is immediate and net zero deadlines are too often vanities without action.
Trying to educate supply chain players is never going to be enough without leadership and example. In this, the graphics industry in general and the publishing community specifically can do much more. Radical, risky creativity and investment from printers and publishers of all stripes would perhaps provide leadership and inspiration for smaller businesses.
We do not need to scare people into change. The planet will eventually do that for us. More important is to recognise that there will be life after climate collapse, but we may not want or be able to live it. So if you are a publisher or a printer, large or small, here are a few suggestions for whatyou can do now:
1. Set up an inhouse Environmental Management System (EMS) and only work with suppliers who also have an EMS. ISO 14001, based on principles of continuous improvement to environmental impact mitigation, is an excellent tool for this.
2. Require print service providers to calculate the carbon footprint of each publication printed at their production sites. Here too ISO has a useful tool. ISO 16759 is a carbon calculator created exclusively for print. Its requirements address all aspects of a printed publication’s production to calculate the carbon footprint of individual print runs.
3. Create and share an environmental management policy or manifesto with customers, service providers and the rest of your value chain.
4. Develop company-wide recycling and sustainability policies that everyone can conveniently support. Offer collections for customer returns and waste and set up dedicated recycling and reuse community websites.
5. Focus on direct digital printing for on demand production and develop a robust network for of sale and distribution, including online. Print buyers should only work with printing companies who use process-less printing plate imaging, cutting out chemical processing of printing plates. Implement colour management and teach your designers about what it is and how to use it.
6. Build in-house toolkits to support peoples’ knowledge development and development of continuous climate change mitigation policies. Explain what they can do now: colour management at the design stage and throughout production, the sustainability limitations of different substrates, matching run lengths to printing technology and marketing plans, designs for end-of-life and recyclability and so on. Such toolkits should be standard for all publishers and printers.
None of this is rocket science, but it takes commitment, dedication and investment. Time to make a start. Tick tock.
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This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, RicohSplash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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