Océ announced on June 5 that the company has been recognized as an environmental leader in printing and document management through its selection as a Climate Action industry partner. Climate Action is an international organization communications platform that informs a worldwide network of businesses, United Nations, government and non-governmental organizations in promoting organizational and individual actions to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. As a result of this selection, Océ N.V. will participate in a series of activities focused on protecting and preserving the environment. These include a “Climate Leaders” video interview with Rokus van Iperen, CEO of Océ N.V., which will be broadcast on www.climateactionprogramme.org and featured on www.oce.com on June 5th, 2008 in support of the United Nation’s World Environment Day. Océ has been selected as a Climate Action industry partner based on the company’s exemplary record of environmentally sustainable products and business practices. These include the CarbonPositivePlus+ project, which provides access to eco-friendly initiatives and carbon offsetting credits for customers who purchase or lease Océ VarioPrint 6000 digital duplex cutsheet printers.

Océ has been selected as a Climate Action industry partner based on the company’s exemplary record of environmentally sustainable products and business practices. These include the CarbonPositivePlus+ project, which provides access to eco-friendly initiatives and carbon offsetting credits for customers who purchase or lease Océ VarioPrint 6000 digital duplex cutsheet printers.

In late May Xerox sponsored its European Leadership Summit in Dublin, Eire. From this new research released by Xerox and Forum for the Future reveals that 96 percent of European business leaders believe that running a sustainable business can no longer be considered optional, but is an absolute
necessity for human survival. Nearly every attendee (95%) surveyed at Xerox’s European Leadership Summit claimed that businesses are not doing nearly enough to address social and economic problems. As a result, the majority of respondents (95%) felt personally responsible for finding new business models, policies and processes that will reduce the damage on the environment. At drupa Xerox emphasised their environmental policies and pointed that this is not a new area for them and they have been operating an environmental policy in all areas of their business for many years.

At drupa on Tuesday June 3 The World Print & Communications Forum (WPCF) supported by Heidelberg hosted its Environment Conference. The conference provided a summary of environmental legislation and gave an insight on how printers manage these legal constraints in their daily work. Presentations featured the situation in the US, China, Japan and Europe. Current trends in environmental matters were presented. Heidelberg gave an insight into the contribution that a printing machine manufacturer can make to help printers fulfill the increasingly strict legal requirements as well as the requests by customers for environmental friendly printing. This Heidelberg presentation showed many ways that press suppliers are improving their products to reduce harmful emissions, reduce power usage and reduce paper waste. One interesting presentation at this event came from PIA/GATF and was about its member printers getting accreditation within the SGP (Sustainable Green Printing) Partnership. To be accredited printers have to prove they can adhere to a range of environmental benchmarks and criteria. The accreditation process will be handled by independent experts. The result will be a list of accredited printers that can display the SGP logo. Printers however will be monitored and can lose accreditation if they do not maintain their environmental standards.

In Europe there is an initiative being sponsored by a number of organizations including HP and Fujifilm. This is the Verdigras project run by the publishing and consulting organization Digital Dots. This company is run by Laurel Brunner who in a previous period was European Managing Director of Seybold. The Verdigras initiative will work with vendors and printers to assess the carbon footprints of printing equipment and plants and evaluate potential carbon offsetting for these. It will also endeavor to compare the environmental impact of different printing and publishing activities compared with electronic forms of publishing such data. Verdigras will also be compiling a list of environmentally friendly printers, in this case it is using the ISO 14001 standard as its standard of excellence.

Some people may still wonder why this is so important to this industry, however these appear to be in the minority today. The printing industry is moving to position itself as a very green industry, and one of the world’s greenest industry to counteract the ridiculously skewed information that is presented by so-called environmental gurus like Al Gore in slating the use of print. Just remember it is a lot easier to recycle paper that to recycle an old computer monitor, computer or printer. The electronics industry is trying to conform to environmental regulations in Europe like ROHAS (reduction or elimination of hazardous substances in devices) and WEE (recycling of electronic equipment). The more that this industry can do to show that print is environmentally friendly the better it will be for all in the industry. We are already seeing demands on the industry from its print buying customers who are looking to only use environmentally excellent printers for their work.

I apologize to suppliers not included in my outlines above. There is just not sufficient space or time to mention everyone that is working hard in this area. The suppliers mentioned above are just an indication of what everyone is doing.

Andrew Tribute