It’s great to see all the conversation about sustainability at drupa. But as a marketer, I think we have a lot more work to do to “green up” the way we present our offerings and communicate our brand value propositions. Xerox issued a news release today that summarizes some of what we’re trying to do. And we put together a factsheet that talks about how we tried to build our stand in an eco-friendly way.

It involves everything from the materials we use in our exhibit, to the lighting, collaterals and carpet – all the things that surround our products and services (which themselves are pretty green.) We also showed a video talking about sustainability through the eyes of the next generation of Xerox people. Check out the green gene here.

As proud as we are of the efforts we made to design a green booth, they are small steps that need to turn into greater leaps moving forward. In a related blog post, Andy Tribute pointed out similar efforts by many other leading printing companies at drupa. But more needs to be done. The International Consumer Electronics Show is America’s largest annual trade show of any kind. This year, CES made an effort to produce a carbon neutral show, working with CarbonFund.org to invest in energy efficiency, renewable energy and reforestation projects to offset the emissions created by every inch of CES space. The printing industry has spent a lot of time focusing on creating sustainable technology and services. And that’s the right place to start. Now we have to put additional focus on sustainable marketing. That means working with creative agency partners and printing partners – every link in the value chain – to ensure that we are marketing our offerings in ever-more sustainable ways. There’s no doubt that the next drupa will be even greener. And even though I’m barely over the jet lag from this year’s show, I can’t wait for 2012.

Ed Gala
Vice President
Corporate Marketing Services
Xerox Corporation

Note: to listen-in on Andy Tribute's comments on the "greening" of the print industry, click on the videos link to hear more.