Commercial printers and industry suppliers have recently made announcements about their environmental efforts. In a competitive environment, these actions are becoming even more important as customers decide which company will get their business. One commercial printer we spoke with at Graph Expo said their environmental efforts are highlighted on the first page of every proposal given to a prospect. Examples:
- Xerox recently released its first global citizenship report and gave a $1 million grant to The Nature Conservancy. As the world's largest distributor of cut-sheet paper, Xerox aims to foster sustainable development by using paper wisely and protecting forest resources.
- Yesterday, commercial printer Pictorial Offset Corporation announced that it has begun planting a forest of over 5,000 native oak and pine trees in order to reduce its carbon-emission footprint on the planet to zero.
- Also yesterday, Mohawk Paper said the company has partnered with NativeEnergy to offset CO2 emissions from its 2006 Sales Fleet and Local Product Transport. Mohawk calculates the mileage of its sales force and local product transportation at close to one million miles in 2006 or the equivalent of 748 tons of CO2.
- Sandy Alexander, one of the largest privately held printers in the U.S., has been named the Clean Power Purchaser of the year by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Sandy Alexander relies on clean, wind-generated electricity to fulfill 100 percent of its electrical needs for both its Clifton and St. Petersburg, FL facilities. Sandy Alexander is also the largest consumer of green power in the printing and publishing sector.
In the most recent issue of NAPL's Business Review, it was reported that Sandy Alexander can attribute an estimated $2 million in new business as a direct result of their environmental efforts - mostly from printing annual reports for high profile and environmentally conscious companies.
Discussion
By Donald Carli on Nov 03, 2006
Efforts to being taken by printers such as Pictorial Offset, Sandy Alexander, Cenveo Anderson Litho and other graphic arts companies are extremely important examples for printers because they are good for business and good for the environment. Climate change and sustainability challenges are of growing concern to consumers, CEO’s, investors and the media. The effects of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions are becoming increasingly visible. Heat waves, periods of extreme drought, catastrophic flooding and intensifying storms are just some of the weather phenomena that repeatedly remind us how our climate is changing. Over seven billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases were emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere by the US in 2004 and a significant percentage were emitted by business activities associated with print media advertising. In 2005 US advertisers spent over $65 billion dollars on print media advertising and created over 250,000 ad pages. A single ad page run in a popular consumer magazine can represent as much as seven tons of carbon dioxide emissions when supply chain factors associated with papermaking, printing, logistics and landfill disposal or incineration of post-consumer and unsold media are taken into consideration. According to a recent NY Times article titled "The Hidden Life of Paper and its impact on the Environment" indicates that the lifecycle impacts associated with just one copy of Time magazine results in the emission of .29 pounds of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases.A single ad page run in a popular consumer magazine can represent as much as 7 tons of carbon dioxide emissions when supply chain factors associated with papermaking, printing, logistics and landfill disposal or incineration of post-consumer and unsold media are taken into consideration. Print can and does play an important and effective role in a brand’s advertising media mix, however, as currently produced it also results in millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, distribution and fate of magazines, newspapers, freestanding inserts, direct mail, outdoor advertising and catalogs. More digital media and less print is not the answer… responsible management of the print media lifecycle is. Neither print nor digital media advertising as currently produced and managed are sustainable… but they can be if advertisers and their supply chain partners work together. For more information about how you can participate in efforts to address these issues, please contact: Donald Carli, Senior Research Fellow The Institute for Sustainable Communication, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation 212-922-9899 [email protected]
Discussion
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