Business Management - Sustainability

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor The knock against operating a business in a socially responsible way is that everyone's for it. . .until it means paying higher prices for goods and services. The printing industry has gone through several rounds of environmental initiatives, most of which have been curtailed by price competition in the marketplace. EPA-mandated process changes have been about the only ones with real staying power, such as limits on VOC emissions by web offset printers. Paper usage is a ready target because it calls to mind images of clear-cut forests and overflowing garbage barges or trucks destined for a dwindling

By Erik Cagle In basic terms, the commercial printing industry has to deal with a new ozone standard set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The standard, previously 0.12 parts per million, now becomes 0.08 parts per million. The back end of the compliance timetable is 2021. One would presume eliminating 0.04 parts per million over an 18-year span doesn't sound all that challenging. But that breakdown is akin to saying the U.S. government is a bunch of people who take care of things. While true, it is horribly simplistic. The new standard, with its ramifications,

Environmentally speaking, what's hot in inks? The EPA—hot on the trail of compliance offenders. But commercial printers cited for noncompliance need not join the much-dreaded "Environmental 4-H Club"—hazardous (as in waste), havoc (as in scrambling for compliance), helpless (the feeling of ineffective scrambling) and hell-to-pay (the cost of noncompliance). With hundreds of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) listed by the EPA—and even more listed at the state level—it's easy to see why printers are feeling suffocated by the growing compliance haze. This controversial issue, like the color of polluted air, is gray, on the best of days. "The first line