Green Is a Competitive Edge, If You Know How to Work It
By Bill Esler, Editor-in-Chief -- Graphic Arts Online, 7/1/2008
Getting more from less is the source of raising productivity. It's also the net result of a rapid, and radical, restructuring of U.S. print capacity and supply chain, happening in a town near you now. The end result is more concentrated and efficient production, which generally means greener. When Quad/Graphics traded 16 old platesetters for nine new Kodak CTPs, that meant fewer chemistry systems, fewer motors drawing energy, and a smaller carbon footprint. As banks call in credit lines, effectively shuttering failing printers, that cleans up aging print supply channels, too.
Getting print closer to end use is also part of the green movement. Amazon said it would no longer fulfill on-demand book orders produced outside its warehouse-based BookSurge digital unit. Likewise Ingram realigned Lightning Source, leading light of digital book printing, probably so physical and virtual inventory can better be merged. In the battle against print imports, while carbon footprint may take some explaining, everyone understands FedEx and UPS surcharges tacked onto shipping bills for print abroad. Use that one in your pitch to keep print jobs in the U.S.
Press-sharing Shifts in supply affect newspapers differently, with daily reports of plant sharing, consolidation and commercial outsourcing. The idea of masses of capital embodied in a press sitting idle, waiting for the daily run—well that is so 20th Century.
Like ride-sharing, press-sharing by newspapers—or outsourcing print to commercial sites—reflects a shifting business model. Publishers face the reality they cannot fund state-of-the-art presses, sorely needed to produce what are becoming colorful print companions to highly traveled local web sites. Correct me if I am wrong, but it stands to reason, that trimming back outdated, excess capacity would be far more green than paying to get triple chain-of-custody certification of paper supplies.
Despite efforts by drupa and select exhibitors to find a “green edge” last month, sustainability was more undercurrent than major thrust in Germany. Drupa is a global show, and sustainability issues play very differently around the world. In India, for example, getting a newspaper delivered is a status symbol—hence a 12% growth in dailies there.
When tree huggers meet printers Generally, printers seemed unaffected on learning that the guts of their print systems have been built in an environmentally friendly setting, or that the masses of paper test printed at drupa are being recycled. No, what really matters is whether the systems print well and efficiently.
At the Sustainability in Printing conference in Philadelphia last month, caterwauling green advocates inveighed against printers who remarked that total carbon footprint for projects on recycled paper is sometimes greater than on virgin fiber grades. Paper firms present were emboldened to note recycled paper eliminates availability of biomass fuel (bark), and may not be so green friendly.
The green movement is caught in a conundrum, where a bewildering array of certification come-ons might easily be confused with scams to assure non-profits their meal tickets. Environmental activists learned at the conference that the print buying public is confused by their green seals; and that they may be complicit in “green washing” (exaggerating ordinary practices as significantly sustainable), “green noise” (a cacophony of environmentalist one-upmanship) leading to green fatigue. Many customers want only the logo affixed, not a higher price tag. All this leaves the dogged printer to sort things out and calmly explain that the hype is more complex and nuanced than affixing a seal on the back of the printed project.
