GREEN scene
Get Ahead by Staying Green
PITTSBURGH—Printing Industries of America has unveiled "The Green Guide for Graphic Communications: Growing and Profiting through Sustainability." The free online resource is available to PIA members to help printers and packaging houses capitalize on their environmentally responsible performance.
The site's self-assessment tool enables a printing facility to accurately evaluate its green performance across a range of criteria. Then, a printer can use the assessment to establish a niche position in the marketplace and effectively communicate its "green" stories to prospects, customers and other stakeholders.
"Printing Industries of America has developed 'The Green Guide' in order to help our members find new ways to increase revenue," says the association's president and CEO, Michael Makin. "This unique resource can help printers grow their business by actively marketing their sustainability efforts, attracting new customers, and building a buzz about their company in both the local and national media."
Members of Printing Industries of America can access the guide by visiting www.printing.org/greenguide.
PRINTER NEWS
Bramkamp Printing, Cincinnati, has purchased an Agfa Acento, a chemistry-free platemaker to incorporate with other green initiatives that include FSC chain-of-custody certification, the use of soy- and vegetable-based inks, as well as recycling aluminum plates, corrugated cartons and pre-/post-consumer paper.
Irwin Hodson Press, Portland, OR, has aligned with ClimatePartner to offer its clients climate-neutral products.
Eagle River, WI-based Hahn Printing has earned FSC and SFI chain-of-custody certifications.
Quad/Graphics reports it is the first major commercial printer to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for a manufacturing plant. Its 25-year-old, Sussex, WI, facility features 1.7 million square feet of usable space on a 73-acre site, and houses almost 60 pieces of heavy industrial press and finishing equipment.
SUPPLIER NEWS
Pace Industries received the Society of Plastic Engineers' Chairman's Award for leadership in environmental practices at the annual Global Plastic Environmental Conference.
More than 90 percent of electricity currently used by Sappi Fine Paper North America's coated fine paper mills in Cloquet, MN, and Skohegan, ME, is generated onsite primarily from renewable resources.
Fujifilm's Greenwood, SC, manufacturing complex is now using methane gas from a local community landfill to power approximately 40 percent of its operations. In the United States, the company aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2012. PI
