At drupa 2024, I had the pleasure of interviewing Benny Landa and Gil Oron. We had six Cal Poly Graphic Communication students we helped bring to drupa, and two of them were in the room when he came in. The word spread fast! Soon we had a gallery…the rest of the students, Colleen Twomey (department chair), and others, which speaks highly of how well he is known in the industry. I introduced him to the first two students; and when the others entered, he took the time to greet each of them, which I thought was really cool—and so did they!

Our members most likely know Benny as the founder of first, Indigo, and then, Landa Digital Printing, which brought to market Nanography, both of which are pioneers in digital printing. But his curiosity, vision, and innovation goes beyond print; and I wanted to take a moment to recognize that as well. Landa said, “I thought when I sold Indigo to HP, I was leaving the printing industry. But then in an energy project, we discovered a new way of making nano materials. And I said to the guys, because I came from printing, let's try for pigments. And by chance it worked. We discovered these nano pigments. And then I said, wow, this is the holy grail for printing. I have to go back into printing. I have no choice. But still, my heart was always with the sustainability message.”

In this article, I would like to highlight another Landa innovation, as the Wall Street Journal noted: The Solar Breakthrough That Could Help the U.S. Compete with China (subscription required). The Landa company is called Lumet. Obviously, making solar energy more affordable and potentially removing the need to ship panels from Asia (transportation has a huge CO₂ footprint!) has many benefits.