Agfa Graphics Announces Winners of the 2013 Sustainability Awards

MORTSEL, BELGIUM—November 15, 2013—Concerns over the environment, as well as over costs have lead companies to adapt greener practices. In support of this crucial shift, Agfa Graphics created a global Sustainability Awards program at the beginning of 2013. The program recognizes and honors companies that integrate, support and promote sustainably sound practices.

In the meantime, six winners that were chosen from entries submitted throughout the worldwide graphic arts market received their awards. The winning companies are engaged in a range of diverse printing applications, from very large-format commercial offset printing, through to digital and newspaper printing. All of them demonstrate active participation in sustainability initiatives and are well-placed to help print buyers meet their own Corporate Social Responsibility goals.

• Gráfica e Editoro Aquarela in São Paulo (Brazil) is a large commercial printer with a long history of social and environmental programs. The company has an “eco-efficiency” waste management program seeking continuous improvement of production processes to reduce the use of natural resources. It also stands out because of its investment in social projects, such as a project to hire young people and people with disabilities, and another project to fight childhood cancer. The CEO of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, Christian Reinaudo, handed over the Sustainability Award to Gráfica e Editoro Aquarela. "We are honored to be one of the few companies to receive this Sustainability Award,” said Paolo Marangoni, industrial director of Aquarela Gráfica e Editora. "To us, this award, honoring such an important issue, means recognition of the fact that we are on the right track in our constant search for more sustainable processes and products.”
• Canadian market leader Cascades is a multi-national papermakers, active in packaging paper and board, tissue, and fine papers. It follows eighteen measurable sustainable development objectives, with environmental impact criteria measured constantly as part of daily operations.
• EarthColor is one of the largest commercial print houses in the USA. It has set up a list of sustainability objectives and works with its customers to help them implement common goals.
• Commercial printer Graphica Printer in Buenos Aires (Argentina) is cutting waste and chemistry.
• At the Badische Neueste Nachrichten newspaper site in Germany, newspaper production is being streamlined using the principles of sustainability. "We recognize the chem free technology from Agfa as a sustainable and future-oriented product, because the associated ecological and economic objectives provide the user and the environment a substantial benefit," said Georg Siepmann, BNN.
• Bright Printing in New South Wales (Australia) has been chosen as one of three companies to showcase energy-efficient businesses to university accounting graduates.

Uniting this diverse group of companies is the fact that they are all using Agfa Graphics' consumables and technologies to reduce waste. The winners share a commitment to process efficiently through technology investments, but they are also reaching out to staff and their customers. This holistic approach to managing the environmental impact has gained several of the Agfa Graphics Sustainability Award winners recognition in their local markets and even beyond the graphic arts industry.

Source: Agfa.