Why have half of the providers surveyed put these initiatives in place? Overwhelmingly, we find that printers feel that social responsibility is the most important factor for adopting green strategies. Companies also rated customer demand, marketing and public relations as having a greater impact on implementing green policies.
Nevertheless, expected legislation was not a driving force for printers to institute green policies. It appears that many service providers are used to imposing state and federal regulations into their shops, as they are often enforced by OSHA, the EPA, and other local and federal agencies. As a result, expected legislation becomes exactly that--expected and, therefore, becoming less of a factor.
(See Figure 2.)
Overall, the print providers surveyed have management personnel that are very supportive of green strategies. Nevertheless, many of these companies believe that implementing green strategies will increase costs. To this end, printers generally agree that there are not enough tools to calculate a business' environmental impact, which may deter them from implementing new green or sustainable strategies within their company.
Print-for-pay companies, which overall have the highest adoption rate of certification program implementation, typically agreed that the processes for becoming certified are too time-consuming.
(See Figure 3.)
Popular Policies
The most popular green policy implemented in print shops nationwide is waste paper recycling, which many shops have been doing for years. Meanwhile, another popular initiative for print-for-pay companies is the purchasing of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified papers. The growing use of these types of paper may be due to a combination of factors, including social responsibility, wider availability and customer demand to print on FSC-certified stock.
(See Figure 4.)
While the use of FSC-certified paper is growing, only a small portion of survey respondents are using 100 percent recycled paper, with companies that run primarily digital imaging devices having higher 100 percent recycled paper usage than those companies in a predominantly sheetfed offset environment.
- People:
- P RINTING I MPRESSIONS





