Eustace, who founded the global paper pressure group almost a decade ago, was awarded the honour at a ceremony on 3 May at the Charter Dinner of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, Stationers' Hall, London. He said he was notified of the news around two weeks before the ceremony.

“I know everybody says these things but genuinely it’s just an acknowledgment of what Two Sides has achieved,” Eustace told PrintWeek. 

“That’s very definitely the basis on which I was very happy to get this because it showed that in 10 years this organisation has grown into something that is globally important, and that’s a great credit to all the people dotted around the globe who are involved on a daily basis.”

Eustace was previously chief executive of Howard Smith Paper and Premier Paper Group. He is also managing director of independent marketing consultancy Newvizion and Print Power Europe, which promotes the sustainability and effectiveness of the graphic communications value chain.

Founded in 2008, Two Sides was created with partners from the graphic communications industry to help overcome inaccurate perceptions of print and paper. It has a five-staff team in the UK and operations worldwide, supported by the likes of the BPIF.

Eustace said that before it was formed, the industry was “not very confident” about its sustainability record.

“Things were being said about print and paper being bad for the environment, kids were coming home from school saying ‘My teacher says you’re destroying the rainforest by buying books’,” he added.

“That was why Two Sides was set up, to provide simple, fact-based information as to why print and paper is a sustainable way to communicate.

“The industry has been very supportive. If I do have a message, I wish we could get more support from print companies. We get great support from organisations and individual printers and publishers so it would be nice to see it more widely adopted by British printers. We have information that would help them market their own materials.”