NEW YORK, NY – June 7, 2005 - The Institute for Sustainable Communication (ISC) has been selected to implement a Responsible Enterprise Print (REP) program at the professional communication design association, AIGA. The REP program will be conducted at the AIGA headquarters in New York and will identify opportunities to reduce the cost and environmental impact of the organization’s design, print, and purchasing decisions. A final set of Program findings and recommendations will be presented at the AIGA annual conference in September 2005. “The AIGA is committed to furthering excellence in communication design,” says Richard Grefé, executive director of the AIGA. “As we approach our centennial year, one focus of the AIGA will be to determine what this generation can leave to the next. Engaging the ISC to perform a REP evaluation will help us demonstrate the value and impact that sustainable design and print activities can have on our future.” Developed and implemented by the ISC, the REP program will analyze the performance of the AIGA internal printing facility and centralized copying operations, and evaluate purchasing practices for commercial printing, office paper and printing supplies. In addition, the program will review the environmental impact of a wide variety of internal and external AIGA communications -- including marketing materials and transaction printing. Benefits of the REP Program include several operating improvements, including stronger economic performance, enriched knowledge management and information handling capabilities, significant environmental footprint reductions, and the deepening of mutually beneficial ties with preferred print-related suppliers. To conduct these analyses and quantify its findings, the ISC developed an Environmental Footprint of Print (EFP) model, which calculates the energy requirements, greenhouse gas, airborne emissions, wastewater effluents, solid wastes and natural resource consumption directly associated with enterprise print. This EFP model will be extended to comply with industry-wide Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. “The EFP design-for-print tool instantly calculates the relative environmental impacts of two design options,” explains Ravi Karumanchiri, REP Analyst. “This helps people understand the effects of their decisions, by demonstrating the value of making a responsible choice.” The announcement of the AIGA REP program follows on the heels of a successful pilot REP program concluded in April 2005 at leading security’s firm, Piper Jaffray. According to Oya Demirli, Executive Director of the ISC, the AIGA program’s success will demonstrate that the REP model is equally applicable to associations, non-for-profit organizations or educational institutions.