Sponsor: Kodak Graphic Communications Group

Delegates (pictured l-r): Bauer Media group manufacturing manager Jeremy Bull
Assistant national campaigns officer, Liberal Democrats, Alan Muhammed
Assistant managing director, Howard Hunt Group, Lucy Edwards
Sales director, GI Direct, Patrick Headley
Print & Procurement director Matthew Parker
Managing director, Geoff Neal Litho, Sam Neal

The curious relationship between the print industry and the environment is always evolving. The industry has opened its eyes to the benefits of going green, which has helped with business efficiencies and marketing. But like all partnerships, there are hitches. Costs, conflicting terminology and the sheer number of certifications remain problematic.

To try to resolve some of these issues, Printing World invited a selection of printers and print buyers to debate the environment’s role in business and help uncover what accreditations mean to the industry.

"How can you bleat on about the environment when you do direct mail – why don’t you just stop printing it?" GI Direct sales director Patrick Headley was asked recently. "But I explained that it’s not as simple as that, he says. I employ hundreds of
people and we need to make a living. I also whole-heartedly believe that both direct mail and print have a future, but printers need to improve their environmental position. "

GI Direct gained ISO 14001 certification in 2001. The firm also has carbon neutral status and is FSC and PEFC accredited. Headley says the accreditations have saved the company thousands of pounds through waste management, but they have also helped it with big tenders, which the firm might otherwise have lost.

Sam Neal, managing director of Geoff Neal Litho, has had similar experiences. "Without these accreditations, our turnover would be half what it is now because we would have lost two of our biggest clients."

Lucy Edwards, Howard Hunt assistant managing director, is also acutely aware of the business implications associated with environmental certifications. Howard Hunt holds ISO 14001, FSC and PEFC certifications and is carbon neutral, but Edwards admits environmental decisions aren’t always straightforward." It’s not about bringing in business
– it’s about not being precluded from business."

Staying in the game
Bauer Media’s group manufacturing manager Jeremy Bull explains how the magazine publisher formalised its tendering process three years ago, which included asking printers to provide data on their environmental accreditations. Firms without certifications have missed out on work.

Rigid tendering processes have led to the creation of ‘official tick boxes’, which must be ticked to win contracts with most large corporate clients. "So many ISO certifications, so little time," jokes Headley. But humour aside, it does raise an important question: where should the relationship begin?

Neal says a firm’s first environmental accreditation should be ISO 14001. "This has got to be the starting point for anyone going down the environmental route," he explains. "Not only can it help you make cost savings but it helps you learn more
about your business and start making informed changes leading to environmental, cost and quality improvements."

ISO 1400 is an international standard on environmental management that provides a framework for the development of a management system and is supported by an audit programme. Businesses are reassessed every six months and
only those that show continuous improvements can be reaccredited.

However, Edwards says there is a big financial outlay before printers make money back, and cashflows might not allow for this.

Not every environmental certification suits every firm. Accreditation processes can be long and costly and dedicated personnel are needed to run ongoing environmental projects. Some certifications also overlap, so printers must decide which will benefit their business most.

"It would be interesting to find out which companies are going green to complete the accreditation tick box and which are doing it because they care," says Edwards. "Certifications are an obvious way to emphasis green credentials to buyers but demonstrating a vested interest in the environment through company culture and best practice will also win you points with clients."

In fact, at the roundtable, it became clear that printers and buyers have varying opinions on certifications. GI Direct and Howard Hunt have opted for PEFC as well as FSC but Geoff Neal Litho decided it didn’t need both. "We also made a conscious decision not to go for EMAS as it duplicates a lot of ISO 14001, says Neal. There was not enough incentive to justify the money that needed to be spent, whether the buyers want it or not."

Headley adds: "Printers are currently not making a lot of profit. You really have to consider whether you’re making enough money to invest in more certifications."

Avoiding greenwash
Matthew Parker, director of consultancy firm Print & Procurement and a former print buyer, argues that ISO 14001 has its faults. "My issue with ISO 14001 is that different measures are taken by firms to get accredited and some printers are more thorough than others." He argues that some printers gain FSC accreditation but don’t have any embedded environmental values, and it is hard for buyers to distinguish between these printers and firms that are committed to the environment.

Carbon neutrality is also a divisive topic. As a buyer, Bull struggles to understand how printers running huge presses can claim to have reached this status. Edwards agrees that terminology is wrong but argues the programme does encourage continual environmental improvement.

But the average buyer might not understand environmental improvements taking place in the factory. Alan Muhammed, assistant national campaigns officer for Liberal Democrats, says he wants to learn more about environmental certifications but doesn’t have time. "When you’re a small organisation, your time is very limited. I am responsible for campaigning as well as buying print and so I have to rely on printers for information," he says.

Pressure on print
Neal, on the other hand, is frustrated that the onus is on the printer to employ an environmental consultant. "We pay to put the accreditation in place and then we have to employ someone to maintain and explain it. Yet buyers, who I assume have some sort of environmental agenda, don’t have time to research them. All the cost emphasis is on the printer."

Edwards can’t name any buyers that are independently pushing an environmental objective. More worryingly, Neal prints 95% of his jobs on FSC accredited or recycled paper but less than 10% of buyers have actually asked for an accreditation logo to be put on their work.

So why should printers bother? Because, ultimately, buyers want to purchase print from an environmentally conscious printer, regardless of whether they understand the technicalities, and printers can lose out on work if they can’t provide in this area. Muhammed explains: "Admittedly, I didn’t know that much about environmental certifications when I took on my role a year ago. But we do a lot of environmental campaigning and we need to be able to demonstrate our green commitments to our supporters."

The printers at our roundtable argue that their accreditations have helped improve their operations through the introduction of auditing, increased efficiency and reduced costs.

Headley is also concerned that if printers don’t make the effort to clean up their processes, the government might step in. "If the government imposes a levy it will make our lives a lot harder. The industry is having a tough time as it is."

As relationships go, the one between the print industry and the environment is far from the smoothest. Printers are feeling the strain of the environment’s demands and the environment is still hurting from years of mistreatment. But the firms that make the most effort get the best return. The strongest relationships are formed by printers that actually believe in helping the environment and what it can offer. These are not necessarily the ones that fork out the most cash, but firms that remain committed and dedicated even during trying times and continue to work towards the future.