Vancouver - Today, international environmental not-for-profit Canopy unveiled the 2017 update to its Blueline Ranking – a widely used customer tool profiling and ranking the sustainability performance of North America’s largest printers. Printers analyzed in this year’s assessment represent $34 billion in annual sales in the highly competitive North American print market.

Highlights from the 2017 Blueline Ranking reveal that:

• Taylor Communications improved its ranking the most, moving from 18th to 3rd place with strong policy updates and implementation engagement.

• EarthColor and The Printing House continue to lead the ranking with strong policies, rigorous policy implementation and transparent reporting on progress and successes.

• Forty-five percent (20/44) of the printers ranked understand the value of communicating sustainability successes to their clients and have strong sustainability content on their websites.

• Forty-one percent (18/44) of Blueline printers have policies that support ancient and endangered forest conservation. In just under two years, five of North America’s largest printers have developed new and leading policies, reflecting clients’ increasing requirements for sustainable printing services.

A growing number of Fortune 500 companies and leading brands use the Blueline Ranking as a key resource in choosing their print partners. Print service giant, HH Global is one of them.

“The Blueline Ranking aligns with our own sustainability goals and is an invaluable resource for cross-checking our print service providers and monitoring progress," stated Jenny Dela Cruz, Director of Sustainability for HH Global.

“As businesses across North America step up to address climate change, it is time to think about the high carbon footprint of printing, which is mainly attributable to paper choices,” said Canopy’s Executive Director, Nicole Rycroft. “Many papers are sourced from the logging of high carbon forests which carries a much bigger climate footprint than processing or transportation within the print sector. We’re encouraged to see strong leadership by many important players in the print sector.”

“As one of the largest providers of marketing communications in North America, it’s important that our customers – both current and future – recognize our commitment to achieving a sustainable supply chain with a reduced carbon footprint,” said Mark O’Leary, President, Taylor Communications. “We are thrilled to move to third place in the 2017 Blueline Ranking.”