Over at the Mother Ship, we have been posting the video interviews with the winners of this year’s Fourth Annual Environmental Innovation Awards. This week, I will start posting the transcripts of those interviews, recorded at our Awards fête in Atlanta in May. First up is this year’s winner in the category of Environmental Sustainability and Your Plant, Sandy Alexander. I spoke with Doug Hazlett, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Going Green: One of the things that you won for this year was repurposing an existing facility into a wide-format facility. Tell us a little bit about that process.  Doug Hazlett: Well, we had a building by our major plant which was a warehouse for paper and we bought a wide- and grand-format retail visual merchandising division and we actually took three-quarters of that warehouse and refurbished it into a wide- and grand-format facility. GG: What were some of the environmental considerations you had to look at when you were refurbishing the facility?   DH: Well, we did a number of things. One is, we tried to do it as energy efficiently as possible. So we did things, for example, put in a false roof to help keep the energy costs down. We put the offices on the second floor so they heated more efficiently. We used low-flow bathroom equipment to help reduce the amount of water we use, and we actually put in a silver recovery unit for the wide and grand format also, the photography area. GG: I see more and more wide-format facilities sort of pursue environmental sustainability initiatives. What are some of the unique challenges that wide-format presents compared to, say, traditional offset?  DH: Well, one of the biggest actually is dealing with vinyl. Obviously vinyl is a major part of the wide- and grand-format business and not part of the traditional printing business. And because of that, we’re actually looking for areas to recycle vinyl. That’s the major one by far. We have introduced a number of environmentally-friendly substrates that we’re working with also. The other area, which is the photographic area, does require recovering silver. GG: What are some of the other unique challenges you found in pursuing environmental sustainability initiatives?  DH: We’ve really tried to broaden our efforts beyond the traditional areas, which are paper, and going beyond sustainable paper certification into broader areas of both saving energy, reducing our energy usage, and going into social responsibility. GG: Speaking of paper, you’re also pursuing what you call a “process for reliable material sourcing.” Tell us a little bit about that.  DH: Well we have a number of sustainable paper programs. We’re with the FSC, SFI. and PEFC, which is very important. And some of our clients ask for it now.  We are also educating our clients on the availability [of certified paper grades] and there’s almost no reason not to use a sustainable paper now when printing a product. GG: Are you finding increased demand from customers and other print buyers for sustainable processes and materials?  DH: Oh, definitely. The majority, I’d say, probably 75 to 80 percent of our clients now ask for sustainable paper and even in the wide- and grand-format area sustainable substrates are becoming very important. GG: Are they willing to pay extra for it or is it just something that they just accept?  DH: Well, it’s gotten to the point where, in the majority of cases, you don’t really have to pay a lot extra for it and where you do they, in some cases, they will definitely step up and pay extra. The area that the biggest difference probably from a cost standpoint is in the wide- and grand-format area. GG: So what advice would you give other printers, be they large, be they small, be they traditional or wide-format, who wanted to pursue environmental sustainability?  DH: Well, I think a couple of things. One is, it’s the right thing to do. We actually have been doing it for many years now and we think it’s the right thing to do for the environment anyways. But beyond that, it’s also good for the business, and our clients are asking for it now, and it’s something we want to partner with our clients on. Thanks, and congratulations again, to Sandy Alexander for their commitment to environmental sustainability.