PRINT's 15 Sustainability Requirements

A qualified sustainable print project meets the sustainability requirements of this subsection if 13 of the 15 requirements below that are employed by the printers and evidenced to the print buyer:

1. The materials used in the print project must be recyclable, and/or

2. The print project cannot include inks which contain heavy metals, such as metallics and fluorescents, scratch off devices, foils, plastic polystyrenes and/or polyesters and/or

3. The print project must contain verbiage that encourages the reader to recycle the printed piece, and/or

4. The print project must contain verbiage that allows prospects/customers to opt-out from further printed communications, and/or

5. The paper or substrate must contain over 25 percent post-consumer waste for coated paper stock and fifty (50) percent post-consumer waste for uncoated paper stock, and/or

6. The paper or substrate must be legally harvested, and/or

7. The print project must not use paper or substrates from endangered forests or areas of high conservation value, and/or

8. The paper or substrate must be produced Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) or Process Chlorine Free (PCF), and/or

9. The paper or substrate must be certified by a credible third-party chain-of-custody certifier, such as The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and/or

10. The ink, coating, laminates and/or adhesives must emit no more than two percent volatile organic compounds (VOC) for sheet-fed printing, no more than 30 percent VOCs for heat-set web printing, no more than ten (10) percent VOCs for cold-set web printing and no more than five percent VOCs for flexographic printing, and/or

11. If a coating is applied to the print project, the coating must not be either a UV cured ink or a film laminate, and/or

12. If a print project is 96 pages or less and is bound as a book, the book will be bound as saddle stitched rather than perfect bound, and/or

13. Print projects that are mailed via United State Postal Service

• must contain the +4 extension for zip codes
• must be processed for deduping or merge/purge
• must have been updated in the last six months for National Change of Address, and/or

14. The printer who manufactures the print project must not have been fined for violations in the past five years from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), or by state or federal regulators for environmental, health or safety issues, and/or

15. The printer who manufactures the print project must use renewable energy (either directly using wind, solar and/or biogas, which is optimal) or by purchasing renewable energy credits (REC).