A number of recent overseas visits have made me very aware of the impact of environmental developments within the printing industry. The first of these was during my recent visit to Japan to speak at a conference linked to the IGAS exhibition. While in Japan I visited the Goka Plant of Kyodo Printing, one of Japan’s largest printing groups, and I was amazed at the significance of environmental protection policy in place throughout the company. I also recently was in the USA where I visited Presstek, the leading supplier of DI printing technology and of process free printing plates. The latest such printing plates from Presstek have a significant impact for printers in adopting environment protection strategies.

Following these visits I decided to look into the impact of environment protection in the UK printing industry. I was therefore very interested to see one of my local printers win two key awards. This printer, TJ International, a specialized book printing company, first won the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) UK Company of the Year Award. This was based upon its performance in the areas of health and safety, training and development, environmental management, quality management, and business performance. It then won the Environmental Printer of the Year award from PrintWeek magazine.

While the printing industry has been addressing environmental issues for many years, increasing pressure from government and local legislation, plus pressures from environmental bodies, and constant demands for cost savings, has made this a key issue today for many organizations. Recently we have been seeing new initiatives, particularly in areas like magazine printing for waste paper reduction. We are also seeing improvements being made in recycled paper so such products are now more suitable for a wider range of print applications.