Special Sustainability Report: Embrace Certification, Conservation

2) Establish a solvent recycling program (saves material and reduces air pollution).

3) Use alcohol-free printing (improves air quality, worker health/safety and reduces chemical usage).

4) Print on “treeless” and recycled content papers (saves trees, energy and water; encourages new agricultural development; and keeps paper out of landfills).

5) Educate customers on sustainable printing (printers that produce greener products help in pollution prevention, compliance and resource conservation).

6) Use low-VOC inks (reduces air pollution and improves employee safety).

7) Sequence print jobs by ink color (saves ink changes, labor and ink waste).

8) Establish inventory control (saves money and reduces landfill waste).

9) Use energy-efficient equipment (saves energy and money).

Printers can also embrace environmental responsibility and sustainable practices by using soy- or vegetable-based inks without a price premium; eliminating toxic chemicals, waste, ink and solvents; lowering pollution in their processes; using eco-friendly papers with high post-consumer recycled content, or are non-chlorine-bleached; educating customers about reducing the environmental impact; and ensuring that print shop air quality exceeds legal guidelines, thereby providing their employees with safe working conditions (including advanced air filtration systems).

Eco-Pillars of Green Paper

How can you tell if a paper product is green? Besides other environmentally responsible attributes, such as chlorine-free, tree-free, etc., you can look for three eco-pillars that identify green paper products:

o Paper manufactured using pulp from certified sustainable forests (FSC, PEFC, SFI) is green for many reasons. These three globally acclaimed certification organizations promote responsible forest management, such as eco-friendly harvesting techniques, soil erosion prevention and waterway preservation. It is recommended that printers become tri-certified in order to broaden their choices of Chain-of-Custody paper available to them.

These organizations also promote deforestation prevention and afforestation (converting bare land to tree-populated land). Trees remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and convert (sequester) carbon as wood. Thus, more trees offset CO₂ emissions via a natural process.

o Paper manufactured utilizing recycled, post-consumer waste has a direct relation to deforestation prevention (saving trees) and diverting material away from landfills.

o Paper manufactured from a renewable energy source, such as electricity generated from biomass fuel burning, avoids greenhouse gas CO₂ emissions by not utilizing fossil fuel to generate the energy.

One of the benchmark environmental measurements currently is CO₂ emissions, now seen as a climate change mitigation opportunity. If industry providers can reduce net CO₂ emissions, they can make a positive environmental impact.

Consumers Are on Board

In this era of heightened awareness of environmental footprints, printers risk diminished product value if their company is not green. Consumers are ready to support environmentally responsible business practices. They perceive that higher ethical standards mean higher quality and, in turn, more protection for the environment. 

In an April DoubleClick Performics study, 60 percent of online consumers surveyed consider environmental consciousness an important company trait. When choosing between two similar products, consumers report they prefer environmentally friendly products; 83 percent indicate they are extremely or very likely to choose the environmentally friendly option. And nearly half of these survey respondents attest a willingness to pay at least 5 percent more for green products. 

Consider the positive impact of printed direct mail pieces and magazines—labeled with industry environmental certifications—in the hands of the public and business executive decision-makers. Despite the use of online communications, print is still rated as the “most trusted, most credible source of information,” and green messages can most powerfully be transmitted through print.

For example, a 2006 Harris Interactive study* analyzed the marketing impact of printed B2B magazines mailed to 588 executives, all involved in purchase decision-making, from companies with $5 million or more in annual sales, covering 21 industry categories. More than 80 percent of the respondents viewed B2B magazines as having more information and reliability than general media sources. B2B magazines (41 percent) topped the list as the single most mentioned resource that executives rely on to do their job. Green printing would have an enormous impact on these value- and image-conscious executives.

In the 2007 USPS Household Diary Study of Mail Use and Attitudes,* it was found that 48 percent of consumers read direct mail pieces, and 33 percent scan direct mail pieces. The immediacy of the mail and the attention paid to it by consumers give printers a singular opportunity to spread their green messages. 

The message is clear: Print is here to stay, and “going green” will enhance your print communications efforts.

*(Sources for the Pitney Bowes, Harris Interactive and the Household Diary studies can be found on the Print in the Mix clearinghouse of print media research at www.printinthemix.rit.edu.) PI

About the Author
Ed Farley serves as senior vice president of marketing and communication at Unisource Worldwide.

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