Business Management - Sustainability

While not following the true form of the 12-step method, the actions outlined in the “12 Steps to Sustainability: How Every Company Can Implement Sustainability to Improve the Bottom Line and the Environment” report are intended to reduce environmental impact.

After more than 10 years, the Federal Trade Commission has released proposed revisions to the “Green Guides” used to help companies apply “truth in advertising” when making environmental claims. The new changes can be summarized in two words: Prove it.

For years now, you've been told that you need to be a “green” printer. Well, now I’m going to tell you to be a sustainable printer instead. Green and sustainable have much the same meaning to most people.

Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the pulp and paper division of Sinar Mas, stirred up the ire of Greenpeace once again. So much so that Greenpeace presented APP its Golden Chainsaw Award for being “one of the worst rainforest destroyers in Indonesia.”

The green printing movement is having a big impact on college printing operations across the country. We ask Lisa Hoover, director of Publications, Print and Mail at Bucknell University, to tell us about these changes and how they're making a difference.

Green printing is anything you can do to lessen the impact on the environment - whether that's a choice of paper, printing fewer of copies of something, recycling what we have printed already, utilizing chemistry-free systems, working with FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certification processes, or reducing overall energy consumption.

President and CEO Dick Kouwenhoven talks about measuring the results of Hemlock’s green initiatives, incentives and reporting, and working with designers to create projects that are recyclable or reusable. Founded more than 40 years ago, Hemlock Printers generates sales of about $30 million CDN.

The company has set aside a total prize fund of EUR 50,000 for the sustainable sheetfed offset printing  award program, which is divided into two categories—“Sustainable companies” and “Forward-looking solutions.” The Heidelberg ECO Printing Award is open to any print shop that operates at least one sheetfed offset press.

Dick Kouwenhoven, president and CEO of Hemlock Printers, and his team set an audacious goal—to become the “greenest printer in the world.” Hemlock did it! In 2010, Hemlock was named the “Most Environmentally Progressive Printer in Canada” for the fifth consecutive year.

Let’s look at exactly what kinds of certifications are out there, and what they actually mean. The most comprehensive type of certification program looks at more than a process or product, it examines the entire business and its affects.

Recycling paper is becoming a lost cause for some smaller companies. The cost of picking up recycled paper is too high to do business. Bee Line Printing on Highway 117 (Burgaw, NC) gets steady business and, in turn, produces a steady trash flow. It’s an expensive waste, but not enough to interest trash companies.

The significant scrap load from the printing company, and other small businesses, just isn’t worth enough money to hire someone to sort it from the trash.