Alcohol-free, processless, recycled, vegetable-based - these green innovations have all helped to make print one of the most environmentally friendly manufacturing sectors there is. However, these technologies and processes have been around for some time and, in more recent years, there has been a lack of revolutionary eco innovations.
The possibility that the printing industry may have become as environmentally friendly as it can get is, therefore, a real one. Thankfully, though, there are some indications that it's not finished finding new ways to go green just yet.
Many print pundits believe that the benefits offered by digital are where an even greener print future lies.
With digital presses, there is little waste - you only print what you need and when you need it. In addition, the latest generation of digital presses are built to consume less energy and, just as importantly, don't require chemistry. This is both good for the environment and good for the pocket.
Graham Leeson, marketing manager for Fujifilm Graphic Systems, believes that digital print will become increasingly influential over the next five to 10 years as it takes energy and chemistry intensive processes out of the print chain.
Leeson says that these factors were a significant driver behind the introduction of the company's Jet Press machine, which he describes as the start of a "new breed of machines hitting the market" that help to reduce the overall carbon footprint of a print job.
Carbon reduction
"If the Jet Press replaced a traditional sheetfed press, its carbon impact would be less than 75% of the litho press," says Leeson. "It uses less energy, fewer consumables and it doesn't require plates. These presses will have a much more significant impact on the market than the digital presses that are around today."
So precise has the measurement of carbon become in the print sector that Heidelberg can even tell you the carbon footprint of one of its presses - for example, the Speedmaster XL 105-5+LX has a footprint of 220 tonnes. Measuring the carbon footprint of a machine might not sound all that impressive in terms of technological advances, but this is information that green printers and buyers of print keenly devour. But as Mark Hogan, marketing manager of Heidelberg UK admits, it's difficult to compare like with like in the print sector and ensure you get a fair comparison. This is one of the reasons the company is currently working with consultants on a technique that will provide an accurate head-to-head assessment.
While this is important to the company's customers, Hogan sees future innovations in the print arena focusing on sustainability and the reduction of waste.
"Look, for example, at paper waste," he says. "The Anicolor requires as few as 15-30 sheets before getting to sellable copy; waste on larger presses has been reduced with CutStar reel-to-sheet technology and also with the faster set up and real-time adjustments that are possible with Inpress Control spectrophotometry. In addition, Heidelberg recently announced a new double-gripper delivery system for its new VLF long perfectors - Speedmaster XL 145 and 162 - eliminating the need for gutters and potentially saving €20,000 to €500,000 per annum in paper trim waste, the level varying depending on annual impression count and paper weights."
Another area that the company is focusing on at the moment is the reduction or elimination of alcohol.
"The latest generation presses are built to cut down or eliminate alcohol and at Ipex all Heidelberg's presses will run with no alcohol except the Anicolor, which will run with 5% to show a low-alcohol option," says Hogan.
End of the road?
Of course, there are some print areas where giant leaps forward or even minor improvements can't really be made. For example, consumers can already pick from a growing list of paper grades carrying a hefty recycled content, with the shortfall in fibres made up from accredited sustainable forestry sources and the entire manufacturing process has been offset making it carbon neutral. Even the impact of the recycling process has been addressed thanks to the new greener recycling plants that are already up and running and, with many more on the cards, the impact of this energy and chemical-intensive process will be further minimised.
According to Fuji's Leeson, pre-press is in a similar situation, with significant improvements having been made to the extent that identifying further savings is difficult.
"From the technical perspective, we're getting to the point where it's difficult to make huge strides environmentally," he says. "With processless, we might be able to reduce the chemical components and alter the plate coating, but these are not radical moves. It's evolutionary, not revolutionary."
Reducing the use of chemicals in pre-press is an area that provided obvious scope for improvement - another is reducing energy consumption levels, something that Heidelberg will address at Ipex, promises Hogan.
"We will be showing the new Dual Top Loader for the Suprasetter A52 and A75 CTP devices, meaning five times less power and waste heat and that also eliminates the need for air conditioning - another green solution with a commercial payback," he says.
Ink manufacturers are another group that have worked hard behind the scenes to eliminate dangerous chemicals from their products, according to Lee Metters, strategic product director at Domino.
"We're seeing a move from dye-based materials to pigmented," he says.
The move towards vegetable-based products has been widely embraced by printers and buyers alike, as have recent innovations in the digital realm, such as the solid ink products devised by Xerox. The company's ColorQube inks eliminate one of the biggest wastages in printing - cartridges - as it doesn't use any.
New directions
But the big question for Metters isn't necessarily whether or not future technological innovations are going to focus around intelligent inks or digital machines that consume
low levels of energy, but more whether consumers are willing to compromise their expectations. He cites the example of packaging.
"If the aim is to produce packaging, but in an environmentally friendly way, then you reduce the options," explains Metters. "The truly revolutionary thing would be to have packaging material that was designed to have less impact, but will consumers see the value in moving to packaging material that's less impressive?"
While industry experts are coming at this from different sides, the general consensus appears to be that the focus in the future will be on reduction - the reduction of waste, the reduction of the use of harmful chemicals and the reduction of energy usage.
The next five to 10 years will see more fine-tuning of existing processes, rather than radical overhauls - to borrow Leeson's words, it's more likely that future green print innovations will be "evolutionary not revolutionary".
CASE STUDY
It was while travelling around Sweden that Peo Akesson had a ‘eureka moment’. Ankesson stayed in a Scandic Hotel and, after checking in, he was given a wooden key card for his room. The idea struck a chord with him – so much so that he tracked down the producer of the wooden cards, Johan Motensson, to a small workshop in Hede, Sweden.
From this meeting, EcoCard was born, one of the most innovative and greenest printing businesses in Europe. The company name was later changed to Sustainable Cards, but the ethos remains the same – to produce the most environmentally friendly, low-cost and high-quality wooden key and business cards available on the market. It’s a company vision that culminated in Sustainable Cards taking on the ultimate green print job for the recent International Climate Change Conference, in Copenhagen, printing more than 100,000 sustainable wooden cards for hotels accommodating visitors to the conference.
The cards, which are also recyclable, were printed on a KBA-Metronic 200 using UV-curable inks. The machine uses no water, alcohol or powder. Coupled with the unique substrate, the job was one of the greenest print jobs ever undertaken, believes Akesson, who says the company was honoured to have an opportunity to prove on an international stage that a product as simple as ours can quite literally make the world a better place.
Our mission, continues Akesson, is to reduce harmful non-biodegradeable card waste to zero by encouraging the use of our eco-friendly wood cards around the world.
