Environment

Antalis, Europe’s leading paper, visual communications and packaging solutions merchant, will join like-minded organisations committed to the environmental cause in supporting Cap COP 21, a series of events to help protect the environment. The initiative, organised in the run up to the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change conference (COP 21), includes meetings, informative events and discussion forums which will be held in the run-up to the main conference, which will take place in Paris, France in December 2015.

Commenting on the Antalis Group’s commitment to partner the initiative, Oliver Guichardon, CSR Director at Sequana, parent company of Antalis says, “Climate change is a global issue, for which we must find solutions at the local level. The paper industry is often singled out, even though it has in fact made huge efforts to protect the environment. This is one of the messages that we will communicate at Cap COP 21.”

As a partner of the Cap COP 21 event, Antalis will sit alongside companies similarly committed to the environmental cause, and before a wide panel of stakeholders aiming to show the way in the fight against climate change.

“This is an opportunity for Antalis to present the many measures it takes to protect the environment,” adds Matthew Botfield, Environment Manager at Antalis UK. “We will be able to highlight best practices and to make sure that the voice of the paper industry is heard as it is often wrongly accused of being the main culprit of deforestation.”

The first in the series of events will be a panel discussion themed ‘Businesses and climate change: what innovations can combat the crisis?’ on Thursday 9th April, and will draw to a close with a major European study on how climate issues are perceived by European citizens. For more information on the Cap COP 21 initiative, go to www.cap-cop21.com 

FESPA has re-launched its Planet Friendly Guide in a new format consisting of a series of ‘mini’ guides.  Originally published in 2007 as a single document, the FESPA Planet Friendly Guide has now been reconfigured as one introductory guide and 10 subject-specific guides. The guides are available free of charge to members of FESPA’s 37 national associations.

The guides now target separate areas where digital and screen printing can be approached with sustainable measures. This recognises the need for information specific to a printer’s own print processes and business priorities making it easier for printers to access the information that matters to them.

In addition to the introductory guide entitled ‘Sustainability and the Future – How Can Printers Meet the Challenges? The 10 subject guides cover:  

• Pollution for Screen Printers
• Pollution for Digital Printers
• Hazardous Substances for Screen Printers
• Emissions to Water for Screen Printers
• Emissions to Air for Screen and Digital Printers
• Waste for Screen Printers
• Waste for Digital Printers
• Paper and Other Substrates for Screen and Digital Printers
• Environmental Management Techniques for Screen Printers
• Energy for Screen and Digital Printers

Sean Holt, General Secretary for FESPA comments: “Legislation and best practice are continually evolving within our industry and of course the Planet Friendly guides must incorporate these changes. We’ve also taken the opportunity to change the style of the guides, making them more reader-friendly. Keeping up to date with legislation can be prohibitively time-consuming, particularly for SMEs. The more digestible and pragmatic format should encourage printers to focus on specific areas of their business where they can implement better environmental practices in a practical and effective way.”
The guides have been created with the expert help of Michel Caza and Paul Machin, two leading voices in the industry each possessing a wealth of knowledge and practical experience on all matters relating to optimising environmental performance.

The research and creation of the Planet Friendly Guides is funded through FESPA’s Profit for Purpose programme, which has already reinvested millions of Euros generated by FESPA’s global exhibitions in various projects around the world to support FESPA’s global print community.

Planet Friendly Guides form part of FESPA’s wider Planet Friendly programme, which incorporates environmental advice, best practice and case studies into the educational visitor programme at all FESPA’s global events.

The FESPA Planet Friendly Guides are currently available in English, but will be translated into French, Italian, German and Spanish at a later date.

Energy assessments carried out by Fogra have confirmed that EFI's VUTEk® wide-format printers with LED curing show energy reductions of up to 82% when compared with devices that use conventional mercury arc lamps. Even in print-ready mode, the company's LX printers with "cool curing" LEDs are now shown to save up to 77% in electricity usage, simply because the LEDs are off, unlike mercury arc lamps which still consume power when the machine is idle between jobs. The calculations of Fogra's Energy Efficiency Project ("Energy efficiency of large and small format printing systems") have demonstrated that users can save around €16,000 every year on power consumption, an important factor for businesses pricing up jobs on both rigid and flexible materials.

Fogra's comparisons with digital printers using conventional curing lamps showed that the former used 1.18kW/m2 while EFI's VUTEk GS3250LX Pro used only 0.22 kW/m2. This impressive scoring adds to the functional flexibility incorporated into EFI's LED-curing printers, with their ability to work with thinner and more sensitive materials, as well as lower cost media.

"EFI has pioneered the use of LEDs in its growing series of production-class wide-format printers with 'cool curing', and Fogra's analysis provides conclusive evidence of the additional savings and green benefits that can be attained by businesses investing in our technology," states Scott Schinlever, senior vice president and general manager of EFI Inkjet Solutions. "Although we thoroughly tested and assessed the lower energy usage when we originally developed these printers, the results from Fogra now provide third-party and impartial confirmation of the significantly reduced power requirements.  While others claim green benefits, their use of heat to cure and having thicker substrates runs counter to being green."

The evaluations carried out employed Fogra's "Image Quality Test Suite" for printing, with typical production and stand-by/print ready modes being used. The conditions were configured to emulate both highest productivity and greatest quality, incorporating the relevant machine combinations for accurate results.

"I would like to thank EFI for the great support during our research project. We found out that the used print mode heavily contributes to the final energy efficiency (m2/kWh). However when using agreed upon parameters, as in our developed guideline, the significant savings of LED based curing can be demonstrated," says Andreas Kraushaar, head of Fogra's Prepress Technology Department. " 

The objective of Fogra Forschungsgesellschaft Druck e.V. (Fogra Graphic Technology Research Association) is to promote print engineering and its future-oriented technologies in the fields of research and development, and to enable the printing industry to utilise the results of this activity. To this end the association maintains its own institute, with about 60 staff members including engineers, chemists and physicists.

Following over 12 months of development work with the University of Sheffield, Northern Flags has announced the completion of the printing, treatment and installation of a ground breaking 20m x 10m banner on the University of Sheffield’s Alfred Denny Building that turns textiles into a catalytic surface that purifies the air around it.

The banner has been manufactured using pioneering catalytic technology developed by the University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Science, Professor Tony Ryan and features the world’s first Catalytic poem written by the University’s Professor of Poetry, Simon Armitage.

After a series of comprehensive tests, the 20 metre high banner has been printed utilising dye sublimation techniques on a specially selected fabric to allow the absorption of catalytic chemicals.  The banner contains microscopic pollution-eating particles of titanium dioxide, which, after coming into contact with nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere, react with these pollutants to purify the air. It’s the ultimate ‘Green Banner’ as it effectively cleans the air while it is being displayed and it is fully recyclable after use.

Iain Clasper, Managing Director of Northern Flags, comments, "This has been an exciting project to be involved with over the past 15 months and has capitalised on our group’s ability to work with clients on innovative projects. We are excited about this development as this now gives us the opportunity to work with our clients to roll out this type of treatment on their external marketing banners.  It's a great innovation and will enable clients to clean the air around buildings and forecourts, ensuring that their fabric based promotional flags and banners are eco-friendly during their use as well as being recyclable after the campaigns have been completed.”

Bradford-based The Print Academy Yorkshire Ltd has achieved Carbon Balanced Publication Printer status. Carbon Balanced Publication Printer is just one of the B1 litho and digital printing company’s green credentials; it is FSC accredited, has a comprehensive environmental policy in place and has been carbon balancing print jobs on behalf of its customers via PaperlinX’s Carbon Balanced Paper initiative, for a number of years.

In order to achieve the certification as a Carbon Balanced Publication Printer, The Print Academy calculated the carbon footprint for its business, which was verified by the Edinburgh Centre of Carbon Management (ECCM). The resultant carbon emissions are carbon balanced (offset) by ecological charity, the World Land Trust (WLT), by preserving endangered tropical forests that would otherwise be removed. To maintain the accreditation, The Print Academy will have its carbon footprint audited bi- annually by the ECCM.

The accreditation recognises excellence in environmental performance across the entire spectrum of a company’s operations and services and the use of Carbon Balanced Paper available exclusively from PaperlinX is a key part of the accreditation process.

A wide range of popular papers are available from PaperlinX as Carbon Balanced at no additional cost and other specialist media is offered on an opt-in basis, where customers can choose to pay a small additional cost. The Carbon Balanced Paper initiative means that the carbon emissions related to every aspect of the manufacture and use of paper are calculated so that an equivalent amount of carbon is either prevented from being released in the first place or mitigated in the atmosphere. This balancing is facilitated by the World Land Trust which ensures that carbon impacts are offset in the most effective way.

“A Carbon Balanced Publication Printer is one of the highest statements of environmental integrity and credibility for both the end user and those who provide paper-based communications,” says Managing Director Justin McFarlin.  “We provide print for a number of charities and we’ve won new business because we can offer them the opportunity to directly reduce the carbon impacts of their marketing communications and meet their carbon reduction objectives; simply through their choice of paper.”

He adds, “Now with Carbon Balanced Publication Printer Status, we’ve got a real competitive edge. We’re one of just 16 accredited UK companies and within our geographical reach we are the only B1 printer.  This accreditation demonstrates our commitment to supporting our customers in their own green and CSR policies and will help us to proactively approach and service new markets. It’s a compelling case - every printed piece produced on Carbon Balanced Paper carries a unique World Land Trust logo confirming that it is carbon balanced - and this highly visible seal of approval confirms both our and our customers’ commitment to reducing environmental impact.”

Created in the UK in 2012, Two Sides is the most important global campaign for promoting the sustainability of print and paper. Already present in major European countries in addition to the United States, Australia and South Africa, this campaign now comes to Brazil. “By joining this campaign, we take part in the most successful global initiative for promoting the sustainability of printed communications. We will work resolutely in order to show that we carry out an activity which is essential to people's lives and to the proper functioning of society. Not to mention how important our productive chain is in the generation of jobs, incomes, technologies and other added values”, declares Fabio Arruda Mortara, President of the Brazilian Graphic Industry Association (Abigraf) and the São Paulo State Printing Industry Union (Sindigraf-SP).

Organised by Sindigraf-SP, the launch was attended by the Director of Two Sides UK, Martyn Eustace. “To have Brazil join the Two Sides network is fantastic news. In 2013 alone, Brazil produced 15 million tons of pulp and 10.4 million tons of paper. It is now one of the world’s fast growing economies and with ambitious new pulp and paper projects planned and in production, Brazil is fast becoming a global leader in forest products. It’s exciting to be able to add the fantastic sustainability story of this country to the facts which Two Sides communicates about the paper and print industries worldwide” says Eustace.

The signing of the Protocol of Intent took place at the FIESP (São Paulo State Industries Federation) headquarters, in São Paulo, where the protocol was also signed by 42 associations which represent the various segments of the industry. In total, these associations represent over 80,000 companies generating 615,000 direct jobs and with a turnover of approximately 40 billion USD. The National Newspaper Association (ANJ), the National Magazine Editors Association (ANER), the Brazilian Association of Companies with Rotating Offset (ABRO) are some of the entities backing up this initiative.

In order to engage in an illuminating dialog with society and raise the awareness of opinion leaders, public authorities, educators, suppliers and consumers of printed products, Two Sides is preparing several actions. The first action is the publication and distribution of the booklet “Print and Paper – Myths and Facts”, with scientific contents backing up the sustainable aspect of the print industry. In May, the campaign website will be launched. Advertisements will also be launched for various audiences. “As the campaign progresses, the adverts will be customized and adjusted to the Brazilian reality”, says Mortara. Another action will the fight directed at specific public/private messages and initiatives which mistakenly associate printed communications with a lack of sustainability.

For people who find it unusual that a campaign praising print will be developed on-line and broadcast on the radio and on TV, Mortara explains that there is no contradiction and that aggressive competition between printed and electronic communication must be fought against. “The growing number of media channels favors the propagation of knowledge and information for all and the more the population becomes educated, the more the people will access the Internet and consume newspapers, magazines and books. In this changing media landscape, Print will not be annihilated by electronic media, rather it will remain, we believe, a vital and preferred means of communication”, advocates the President of ABIGRAF.

This is backed up by Pesquisa Brasileira de Mídia 2014, a survey released in February by the Federal Government's Social Communication Department, which shows that the use of newspapers, magazines and the Internet - all three of them! - increases in accordance with the income and education level. “Two Sides reinforces the notion that the printed media is and will continue to be attractive, practical and sustainable, in addition to being supremely reliable.