Intergraf, the European association of the national print associations, held its annual “Print Matters” conference in June 2024 in Romania. Even in a drupa year, important business drivers are shaping up that severely affect the print and related industries and which cannot be simply solved by new equipment. The conference looked at drupa trends, AI, sustainability, and reading habits. For the latter, Intergraf released a research review titled “Comparing Print and Digital Media,” offering an in-depth analysis of sustainability, efficiency, and perceptions surrounding print and digital communication tools. For further digging into the study results, the extensive desk research with insights from over 75 studies can be downloaded here (https://www.intergraf.eu/comparing-print-and-digital-media-report-download-request).

Among the other topics, two garnered special interest, as they affect the European print industry as a whole and are set to come into effect soon. Those are the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the EU deforestation regulation.

The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) sets the requirements for sustainability reporting for companies in the EU or with subsidies operating in the EU. The information will complement the annual reporting process and sit alongside financial data. At the Intergraf conference, Eva Vati, sustainability strategist at Verify, one of the first agencies accredited to verify sustainability reports, presented about the upcoming directive.