Don’t Be Green - Be Sustainable!
Are you looking to make your products and processes more environmentally friendly? Pick up a copy of this book and get the detail behind the following checklist. Use these questions to explore the opportunities to improve your products, to develop new ones and to meet your customers’ demands for quality, performance and affordability.
✓ What is the full range of environmental and social issues that are associated with your product or service?
✓ Could you consider a “cradle-to-gate” or “cradle-to-grave” or even “cradle-to-cradle” life-cycle analysis for your products?
✓ How do your products’ environmental and social impacts compare to those of you competitors?
✓ Do you have a short- and long-term plan of environmental and social-related improvements for your products?
✓ What environmental improvements do you anticipate competitors introducing? Are you prepared with a response?
✓ In what ways do environmental enhancements improve your product or service’s overall performance and quality?
✓ Are there opportunities to use environmental enhancements to extend your brand?
✓ Are you using the minimum amount of raw materials possible, i.e., taking advantage of opportunities for source reduction?
✓ Are you ensuring that your raw materials—that includes paper and ink—avoid tropical deforestation? Clear-cutting? Land stripping? Oil spills? (Going beyond chain-of-custody certification.)
✓ Can you use locally procured raw materials to keep energy shipping costs to a minimum?
✓ What steps are you taking to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in all your processes?
✓ What steps can you take to prevent or reduce the production of solid and hazardous waste in your production processes?
✓ How can you reduce your air emissions and releases to waterways?
✓ Can you use solar, wind or other forms of renewable energy to power your plant(s)?
✓ Are you manufacturing your products close to your markets to support local jobs and minimize transportation energy and costs?
- Categories:
- Business Management - Sustainability
• Define their sustainability strategies,
• Deliver a positive, sustainable image,
• Gain credibility, trust and respect, and
• Measure the results of their green initiatives and actions.
Gail is a nationally recognized speaker on a wide range of subjects and brings enthusiasm and a unique blend of experience to the podium. As an industry analyst and journalist contributing to publications in the United States, Canada, India and Brazil, she has covered a number of beats, particularly sustainability in printing and mailing, print on demand, variable data printing and direct mail.
