Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is taking its environmental commitment to the next level. Customers can now have all postpress equipment for commercial printing supplied with carbon offsetting. This includes the folding machines and deliveries of the Stahlfolder TH / KH family in all working widths, all Stitchmaster ST 100, ST 350, ST 450, and ST 500 saddlestitchers, and the entire family of Eurobind adhesive binders comprising the Eurobind 600, Eurobind 1300, and Eurobind Pro.

Heidelberg calculates the amount of greenhouse gas generated during manufacturing and shipment on a customer-specific basis and purchases a climate certificate to offset the relevant amount of CO 2. The sum paid supports a climate protection project in the African country of Togo. Heidelberg has been offering this service for all its presses for more than a year now. Here, too, projects in Togo are the beneficiaries. This initiative enables print shops and postpress businesses to demonstrate their green credentials to customers.

They receive the certificate along with the specific machine to which it relates. If the machine is resold in the future, the certificate can still be used. Heidelberg pays NatureOffice for the certificate and the TÜV-approved climate protection organization then uses the proceeds to support climate protection projects in Togo. A number of trees corresponding to the amount of the greenhouse gas CO 2 generated during the machine's manufacture and shipment are planted in a protected reforestation area. Over their lifetime, these trees will remove the same amount of CO 2 from the atmosphere in the form of biomass.

A small contribution with a big impact - costs equivalent to around 0.1 percent of the purchase price

The additional cost of a climate certificate when purchasing a postpress machine is comparatively low, amounting only to around 0.1 percent of the total purchase price. For a combination folding machine in the 70 x 100 centimeter (27.56 x 39.37 inch) format, an average of ten metric tons of CO 2 is generated, which results in an offsetting cost of EUR 200. In this particular case, 27 trees are planted.

Customers already benefit from service unique in the industry

One of the first customers to purchase climate-neutral postpress equipment from Heidelberg is the Austrian family business Bösmüller, which has around 75 employees.

"We have been offering our customers carbon offsetting for their print products for some time now, and the demand is growing steadily," says Managing Director Doris Wallner-Bösmüller, explaining the reasoning behind her environmental investment. "Climate protection is a focal point throughout our company. It also plays an important role in our long-term investment decisions. To date, Heidelberg is the only company that can supply postpress equipment with carbon offsetting. We have decided on a Stitchmaster ST 450 saddlestitcher and a Stahlfolder KH 66 folding machine. Naturally, the main priority is to ensure that the two new machines cover our production requirements, but the fact that Heidelberg supports our climate protection ambitions is a bonus. We are increasingly factoring such considerations into our investment decisions," she adds.

With the addition of postpress equipment, Heidelberg is systematically expanding its portfolio of products that benefit from climate-neutral production and also simplifying internal production processes. "It was important to us from the outset that climate-neutral thinking and actions should also be part and parcel of our day-to-day work processes. As a result, it's now just as easy to configure and supply a climate-neutral machine as any other series machine. Our aim is to make climate-conscious development and marketing of our products the daily norm," says Christian Elsner, Product Manager with Heidelberg Postpress Commercial.