FRONTLINE: Press Eco Footprint Carbon Footprint of Speedmaster Profiled

The push to protect the environment has press-makers embracing sustainable practices. At a December press conference in Germany held by Heidelberg, sustainable print buying trends by printing and packaging buyers were reflected in a lengthy presentation by Dr. Jürgen Rautert, management board member responsible for the firm's engineering and manufacturing. Rautert presented an estimate covering the environmental impact of a Speedmaster XL105 6-color press with coater.

The example had the press running 36 million sheets for 8,000 jobs, 18 per day. The majority of its impact is in paper, which accounted for 4,300 tons of CO2 annually, in consuming 4,059 total tons of paper, about 283 of them in waste.

“There is no reliable source for the CO2 footprint of ink,” noted Rautert, though figures for water, cleaning agents, dryers and even spray powder were calculated. He offered numerous opportunities for reducing a press's carbon footprint, such as moving the infrared dryer (shown here) 1 cm closer to the substrate, which allows it to run at a lower setting using 5% less energy.

He also covered some of Heidelberg's initiatives for sustainable business practices in its manufacturing operations. www.us.heidelberg.com