Print21 Magazine - June 2006 Edition
Every cog and shaft in the industry's machinery is doing something positive environmentally, but it's still not enough. The shadow of harsh government regulation looms over printers, and we must earn the trust of all stakeholders and change perceptions, says Tony Duncan.

The major difference between the natural world and the industrial world is that there is no waste in the natural world. Everything (including us eventually) is re-used. In our current industrial world this is not the case, and we are continually looking for new ways to bury or incinerate toxic industrial by-products. This probably didn't matter quite so much when earlier societies simply poisoned their own backyards and global forces could absorb the localised problem. But we are now in a situation where the industrial impact is often greater than the natural world can absorb or repair.

Whether they are looking at the wider picture or not, consumers the world over have a much heightened degree of environmental sensitisation. Dead trees and print are way up there as easy targets. And we knew it was on the way - indicators such as newsprint consumption have been strong pointers around the world. In the US Print sales are down almost 10 per cent year-on-year.

How we deal with this environmental challenge will define the new printing industry.

Since the early days of the internet, attacks on print have been predictable. The internet has been a boon to businesses wanting to communicate with their customers, and probably reduce costs in the process. Print's leadership in providing corporate communication solutions has been allowed to pass to others. Generally, few print companies are advisors to their clients on the best ways of communicating with their customers with richness, reach and cost.

Sustainable businesses everywhere continue to reduce waste, improve efficiency and develop innovative new products and business models. If print companies can't supply their needs, they look elsewhere.

Within the print industry there is a broad collection of attitudes to the environment - from deep green to dinosaur in colour. Our challenge is to ensure we support those who are brave enough to push the green boundaries, while ensuring the majority are helped to improve their systems and processes.

Advice is cheap but ignoring it can sometimes be the most expensive decision a business will ever take. You can't ignore environmental issues without paying the penalty, so here are ten environmental suggestions / issues / concepts for consideration:

1) Environmental Management Systems
EMS's are just that - systems, not guarantees of environmental improvement. The most well known are ISO14000 (14000 is the ISO series of standards covering environmental management tools and systems) and EMAS. They are similar in process to ISO 9000 quality systems in that they provide a useful framework to monitor and review, but they do not guarantee performance.

EMAS is a European-only system, and while it started well, registrations have been trending downwards. There were approximately 3,000 at the end of 2004 compared to 74,000 certified ISO14001 including 1,250 in Australia, 5,000 in China, 16,500 in Japan, 5,500 in the UK and almost 4,000 in the US. There are a number of drivers to commit to an EMS implementation - regulatory compliance, customer pressure, staff commitment, and savings on waste. There is no doubt that the resources required - upwards of $5,000 and staff time - have precluded smaller companies from taking this step. Less rigorous certifications - Waste Wise in Victoria or Green Stamp in WA, provide opportunities for companies who want to test the water.

Organisations such as Printing Industries in Australia (and similar organisations overseas) are currently developing programs appropriate to smaller print businesses. The key issue with any of these is cost-effectiveness and credibility with customers.

2) Your Environmental Vision
The start of any EMS begins with the development of an Environmental Policy. I would recommend any company - large or small - if they are serious about environment challenges to take time out to write a one to two page Environmental Vision, not policy. The focus should be two to three years out - and detail how you, and your staff, would like to improve the environmental position of your business and why. It should also include the challenges you foresee in getting there.

The discipline of putting this in writing will crystallise concepts and allow you to perhaps prioritise some projects - and kill some of the more fanciful schemes. It will also clearly identify gaps in knowledge and resources. Get it laminated - with a recyclable plastic - and put on the wall for everyone to see, including customers!

3) Generation X
Do not believe that the next generation view print and the environment the same way you do. Professor Ken Priess, at the Manufacturing Summit last November highlighted one of the key global consumer trends as Environmental Anxiety. Gen X, and more so Gen Y, have this high on their agenda. Whether you deal with them as staff or customers, environmental issues are a real issue for young people. A lot of them are taking ownership of the issues - but want you to as well.

4) Government
State and Federal Governments have environment high up their vote catching agendas. As such, they are continually looking for opportunities and targets. Currently our industry is seen as a target, and we have some fairly onerous legislation pointed at us. The successes of schemes in newsprint and packaging have ensured that the commercial print and paper sector is being asked to explain the recycling differentials. While the logic is impeccable, we understand that there are considerable differences within each market sector - newsprint, packaging and commercial - but this is not going to stop attempts at regulation.

Again, industry associations will have to work together to minimise impacts. At the same time Government departments have KPI's that measure annual consumption rates of copy paper and are publicly reported on. Other Governments are instructing departments to use print as a last option.

However, some Governments also see print as an opportunity to work with a major industry to solve on-going sustainability issues, and there are some excellent support programs for industry. If you get the chance - talk to them.

5) Suppliers
All the major supplier and manufacturers are heavily involved in environmental developments. Press manufacturers have made considerable progress, and are continuing to research technologies to reduce waste and pressroom chemistry. Likewise most of the paper manufacturers have invested in raw material and manufacturing environmental certification as well as a raft of new products.

However there are some ambiguous claims out there, and paper remains a complex subject. This is not helped by claims that one particular accreditation is better than another. In the US, FSC has been a leader in environmental improvements in the Forestry area, whereas Europe until now has been predominately EMAS and ISO, and Asia has been a mixture. Each has its strengths. FSC is supply chain focused, EMAS is considered to have better reporting transparency and ISO14000 has credibility in sheer numbers and global acceptance.

The point here is there is no one-size-fits-all, but you should be working with suppliers who understand the difference, and can provide credible advice.

6) Lean and Clean
Lean manufacturing and cleaner production have been around for probably 10 years or so. The lean manufacturing concept has strong links into the earlier quality movement with a particular focus on reducing the waste associated with the downtime around a job - i.e. although a job may take 10 days to be completed, it may only be worked on for 5-6 hours. The rest of the time it is waiting for machine space, being moved in and out of storage etc. We have seen some remarkable improvements in efficiency, and wastage by companies using the processes. For medium sized companies, the initial cost will be in the vicinity of $10,000 (sometimes subsidised by State Governments), for a reasonably in-depth report and recommendations.

The focus of cleaner production is to minimise problems before they happen and avoid the 'end of pipe' waste management and cleanup approach. Cleaner production is a globally recognised concept and has led to a number of further initiatives. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has driven a number of these.

At the heart of both lean and cleaner production is a commercial truism. Why waste product that you have paid for? Whether that is a staff member's time and wages, or paper waste going to landfill, or volatile organic compounds (VOC) being vented, it is a resource you have paid for, it's your bottom line going out the door.

7) The Current Industry Situation
There is no doubt that a large number of printers have invested in environmental initiatives directly and indirectly. New technology such as CtP is contributing to a major reduction in the use of chemicals. Make-ready times are down, the use of alcohol is reducing - less than six per cent seems to be attainable - chemical recycling units are being installed, Soy inks are becoming relatively commonplace. Without necessarily addressing environmental issues directly, the industry has taken these initiatives on board because they make good economic sense.

My only concern is that while this is good and must continue, in general the industry is still too focused on the act of putting ink on paper. The next steps need to be focused on the business model as well. Your customer may not want even one hard copy of a published document - now how do you make money out of this?

8) More acronyms and buzzwords
LCA - Life Cycle analysis. A concept of growing importance which considers that any analysis of environmental impact requires identification of the impacts at each stage of the life of the product or service - both up and downstream. LCA standards are within the ISO 14040 framework. In Australia there is a growing body of expertise in LCA. As a scientific approach to environmental issues it has credibility, although concerns are sometimes expressed regarding the boundaries used for a particular LCA.

EPR - Extended Producer Responsibility. Focused on pushing the responsibility to the producer for the wastes produced during manufacture delivery, and disposal. Examples from Europe include the labelling and recovery of parts when a car is finally disposed. In Australia the NSW State Government is implementing EPR for specific wastes of concern e.g. batteries, TVs, computers, cigarettes, and office paper, which includes most printed materials.

Product Stewardship - another form of EPR.

Triple Bottom Line - widening company reporting responsibilities to include economics, environment and society.

Ecological Footprint - Used to identify how much impact the lifestyle / consumption of a particular group. Usually measured as the 'area of the biologically productive land and water required to produce the resources consumed.'

Eco-design. - Designing products / services to minimise or avoid environmental impacts.

eTree - Computershare's 'greenwashing' scheme where shareholders are offered an opportunity to opt-out from receiving hard copy company reports. For a lifetime's opting out, the company involved pays a one-off $2 to tree planting activities. Sounds like a good deal - for the company.

9) Brown on the outside, dark green in the middle
As with the introduction of any new concept, we are seeing a number of so-called commercially driven green initiatives. Often, but not always, these have start up funding from well-meaning Governments. But left to their own, these can end up costing industry real money in the form of royalties and fees - at best delivering nothing much; at worst, schemes that waste companies' money. And while a number have sprung from well-intentioned individuals, another level of costly bureaucracy is not what the industry needs. Any scheme that promises green credentials should be considered carefully before committing time and money.

10) Corporate Sustainability
In 1993 Hardin Tibbs wrote a major paper titled Industrial Ecology - An Environmental Agenda for Industry. In it he raised the critical issue we are still grappling with - economic growth with a more strategic approach to the environment. Developing “an emphasis on forms of technology that work with natural systems, not against them”.

The concept of sustainable development is one where we make decisions based not only today's needs but consistent with future needs as well.

But when you're in the middle of the daily swamp with alligators approaching, all this can sound a little fanciful. However, remember that part of the reason we are under attack and losing the print-on-paper battle, is because we have failed to address these issues in any strategic way over the past 10 years - both at an individual business and industry level.

And finally……leadership
The impact of leadership and organisation capability on implementing environmental improvements cannot be underestimated. Firms that achieve great strides in pollution prevention and other improvements in environmental performance may well owe little or none of that success to the mere use of an EMS. Improvements may depend much more on how effectively and ambitiously an EMS is implemented, how well the organisation is managed overall, and how committed the managers are to seeing that the firm achieves real and continuous environmental improvement.

There is no best way forward in the environmental space. Each company needs to face up to its own responsibilities. However, the increasing pressure for print to prove its environmental credentials is a definite trend, not an uncertainty. Doing nothing simply means much less print on paper.

Experience in Australia indicates that formal systems are not common among printers, although greater numbers are thinking about it - the three primary reasons being regulatory compliance, supply chain and customer pressure.

For smaller businesses, these can be difficult to foresee and is a major reason Printing Industries has at least three major environmental initiatives underway with State and Federal Governments along with key industry associations, universities and environmental groups.

A formal EMS or environmental logo is not a panacea. However, it is a positive statement to your staff and customers that you are taking this seriously.

There is some interesting research out of the US that shows a direct correlation between organisations that are seen by their employees to be trustworthy and a reduction in the organisation's waste.

Ironically, that is the message we need to get through to our governments, customers and end users - that we can be trusted as an industry to act in their best interests.

Tony Duncan is CEO of the newly formed Printing and Writing paper stewardship Association (PAWPSA). He is actively involved in developing an environmental framework for the industry.