Some of you may recall that at last year’s Graphics of the Americas, I moderated a “green roundtable” of representatives from vendors, printers, paper manufacturers, and others to discuss some of the major issues relating to environmental sustainability in the printing industry. Although this year the opportunity for a reprise did not arise, I was down in Florida last week for the 37th Graphics of the Americas, back in Miami Beach after a year up in Orlando. (When in Orlando, I like to go to the upscale neighborhood at sunrise so I can see tony Orlando and dawn. But I digress...) Anyway, although there was not a heavy green focus at the show, there is evidence that environmental issues are steadily and stealthily creeping into the supply chain. Still, there were a few overt green products on hand. Ilford was on hand, showing its BioMedia line of display film substrates, which are anaerobically biodegradable (in accordance with ASTM standard D5511), as well as the FSC-certified Photo Realistic paper, which is compatible with aqueous printers. Ilford’s BioMedia line, by the by, won an SGIA Product of the Year award at SGIA 2011. Going Green has questions about the ultimate greenness of “tree-free” paper, especially when the replacement is plastic, but Yupo was touting its synthetic paper as being “100% tree free” and indeed its line of substrates is made from polypropylene pellets and is also 100% recyclable. (It’s a recycle category 5 product.) Its resistance to tear and other forms of abuse also boost the longevity of printed materials and thus keep them out of the waste stream longer. Substrates aren’t the only environmentally friendly product category. One interesting software application I heard about several months ago was a so-called “eco-print calculator” integrated into the latest version of Caldera Graphics’ CostView cost visualization software for large-format printers. CostView allows users to monitor all the costs associated with a particular print job, and even calculate the CO₂ generated by each component in a job—ink, media, electricity, and other inputs. No word on where the raw data to plug into the software comes from, but it’s worth keeping an eye on. As far as I know, it’s the only tool like it and it will be interesting to see if the idea gains more traction in the industry.