The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
It’s a sad fact that doing business these days involves a tremendous amount of admin. It’s annoying but unavoidable that in the digital age, pretty much everything has to be accounted for. Whether it’s proving your identity as a company director with the government or applying for support funding, providing the right documentation and reference data is unavoidable. And digital accountability creep is spreading to matters sustainability as well.
But finding the data for much of what today’s business environment requires to confirm its sustainability credentials can be very hard. It can also be expensive depending on the type of data you need to get and who is providing it. Datasets can cover such things as your government’s record on emissions, local recycling details and waste management. The probity and competence of the company offering environmental datasets can be an indicator of the data’s reliability. But always get assurance of the data’s high quality and that datasets are regularly updated. Plenty of service providers want to take your money, such as Datamaran which offers ESG management software or Bright Data, suppliers of web business datasets. If you’re dubious, query the integrity of what you are being offered. Are you being offered primary or secondary datasets? What standards does the provider conform to? The ISO 8000 series is all about data quality and assessment, so conformity with it is a good indicator.
It can all seem quite overwhelming, so for many small businesses in the printing sector it’s often simpler to create your own dataset for the smaller stuff. Your energy and water providers can provide emissions and water quality data and have the resources to do this. You can measure how much energy and water you use by tracking utility bills over time. You can measure health risks by keeping a log of health related incidents. Spillages and accidents should also be recorded. This is the type of information that banks and insurance companies like to have when deciding on loans and premium rates. But it is also relevant if you are applying for financial support, say for instance to comply with legislation related to the European Union’s Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan. You might also be asked questions relating to sustainability from your customers, especially if they are large enterprises doing business in the European Union.
You can measure your production carbon footprints using ISO 16759 which is basically a carbon calculator for print runs. It helps you to measure materials and processes and at CH181 it’s not expensive. You can get it from ISO.org.
In a world where data is drowning us it’s easy to lose sight of approaches to accountability that are simply effective and easy to do. Basic business records and systems management are inexpensive and they work. Calculating your environmental footprint isn’t as hard as it seems.
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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, Ricoh, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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