Congratulations Are In Order!

Happy Earth Day to You! Congratulations to the winners of the WhatTheyThink Environmental Innovation Awards! And - Happy Birthday to Going Green! This year is the 39th anniversary of Earth Day; first celebrated on April 22, 1970. How did it start? In September 1969 at a conference in Seattle (where I live now) U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin (where I lived then) announced that in spring 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. Approximately 20 million people participated in a national day of observance of environmental problems on the first Earth Day. That date now marks the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Part of the WhatTheyThink Going Green Earth Day is our celebration of 5 companies who have been selected as winners of the WhatTheyThink Environmental Innovation Awards. These are companies who are making real and concrete contributions to innovation, implementation, and communication of environmental solutions. While we can only present 5 awards, there were more than 45 applications submitted and every company who took the time to tell us about their programs and initiatives are environmental heroes. We will be introducing you to them over the next few weeks. In the meantime, here are our award winners:

Environmental Sustainability and Your Plant: Quad/Graphics, Sussex WI
Environmental Sustainability and Your Processes: Homewood Press, Toledo OH
Environmental Sustainability and Your Community: Patient News Publishing, Haliburton ON
Beyond Environmental Sustainability: AllpakTrojan, Renton WA
Environmental "Thought Leader:" Spirit Graphics & Printing, Inc, Chula Vista CA

Read more about what they are each doing in First WhatTheyThink Environmental Innovation Awards Program a Success! WhatTheyThink Going Green is One Year Old! Going Green was added to WhatTheyThink, April 22, 2008, to be a resource for our readers to help them identify and implement a wide range of green initiatives. We offer stories, reports, commentary, and interviews that will highlight what others have done and what you can do to reduce your environmental footprint and become more sustainable. So what have we done for you lately? We've published nearly 200 posts, highlighted more than a year's worth of events, fielded hundreds of comments, offered 2 dozen books on our reading list, and another 2 dozen resources and publications. Whew! Other ways you can read Going Green articles and stay on top of events? Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter or follow us on Twitter. Looking forward to more Earth Days and sharing the path to sustainability with all of you!

The Total Label Issue

This issue of the WhatTheyThink Quarterly is all about labels, which are seen as a high-growth part of commercial printing, driven by e-commerce, food/beverage demand, and regulations. The market has surpassed 1.2 trillion square meters of label production volume per year, and is moving toward high-mix, low-waste production rather than only high-volume throughput. While flexo is still used for high-volume label production, digital label printing often complements it—or in some cases replaces it. But labels are about more than printing technology. Read More

Around the Web: Of Water and Winners

A sign-writer created the visual style of music festivals. The “2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year” winners. AI appears to be catching on among the Amish. Sony has upgraded its wearable air conditioner. How to easily reuse produce bags. A complex digital water clock. A Nobel Prize–winning technology is able to extract water from dry air. Yes, it is possible to be allergic to water. Laser-induced graphene on Kevlar enables multifunctional structural composites. The “most desired” place in each of the 50 states. “The rise in plastic surgeons asked to create ‘AI face.’” K-pop band BTS has teamed with Oreo to release limited edition OREO x BTS Cookies. Welcome to WhatTheyThink’s weekly miscellany. Read More