The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
The European Union’s (EU) Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is where opportunities for printing companies could be lurking. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start with the facts. The ESPR establishes sustainability requirements for products placed on the EU market and aims to encourage the making of more reusable, repairable, recyclable and resource-efficient products. What matters to print service providers and their suppliers is the European Union’s five year working plan. This has specified the first product groups that must follow ESPR rules by 2030. If you provide services for companies in any of these groups, pay attention to the ESPR because that’s what your customers will be doing.
Top of the list for ESPR compliance is textiles. Businesses such as screen printers and those attracted to the growing market for digitally printed fabrics and garments, need to be aware of ESPR expectations. In addition to textiles are furniture, tyres, mattresses, iron and steel, and aluminium. Most of that won’t be of interest to the printing sector but aluminium is used to make printing plates so printing plate manufacturers will be complying with ESPR rules. Key to compliance is the Digital Product Passport (DPP) which provides all sorts of information about a product, including its sustainability credentials. The DPP also includes information about the material composition of products, and their repairability. Printing plates are products so if they are placed on the European Union market, they’ll have a DPP.
Manufacturers, say of printing presses and finishing equipment, as well as end users of their equipment should make sure they understand what the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Digital Product Passports mean for their businesses. The ESPR is not just another layer of annoying bureaucracy, but part of a massive change in how business gets done in the European Union (EU). It’s all to do with the EU’s Green Deal which specifies, by law, that the EU will be carbon neutral by 2050. The funding to achieve this goal is astonishing: over €1 trillion dedicated to sustainability investments. Serious money intended to seriously transform the EU’s member states. These investments are expected to yield cuts to emissions of at least 50% by 2030, compared to 2018 levels. The Green Deal investments into green infrastructure and technologies (€275 billion) will help to transition and diversify EU economies (€20 billion).
For the printing industry this will change the way many print businesses operate, because it will change to how their customers operate. Printing companies can expect to be asked questions about materials, durability, end of life and so on as this information about collateral print will be needed for the Digital Product Passport. A system for information collection, storage and communication will help with this. You’ll also need information from your suppliers about the sustainability of the products they provide, from printing plates and substrates through to presses. It’s in all this change that opportunity lies.
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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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