Environment - Green Events

 

The consumer education campaign “Print Grows Trees” launched this past March, received the Positively Print Exemplary Award at Graph Expo 2010 in Chicago.  In an effort to dispel the misconception that by using use less print on paper, trees are saved, the “Print Grows Trees” campaign shows that supporting print on paper actually gives landowners the financial incentive they need to keep America’s woodlands safe from development and managed in a sustainable manner to contribute important ecosystem benefits such as water, wildlife and carbon sequestration.

Sponsored by the Education Fund of Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA), “Print Grows Trees” connects consumers to the private landowners who control almost 60 percent of America’s woodlands. Age, demographics and financial pressures are causing these landowners to sell or transfer land at an alarming rate, and an average of 4,000 acres of forest is being converted to development daily.

“We are delighted and honoured to be recognised by Positively Print at Graph Expo 2010 for our “Print Grows Trees” educational campaign,” said Steve Bearden, Chairman of PGAMA and President of Linemark Printing Inc., Upper Marlboro, Maryland.  “The campaign’s message resonates globally with consumers and printers alike because it clearly addresses the misconception that if we stop using print we’ll save trees.  We all need to think before we don’t print.”

For more information on “Print Grows Trees” contact Kerry Stackpole or visit www.PrintGrowsTrees.com for facts about America’s forests and the paper and printing industry, and a personal account of Jo Pierce who owns 2,000 acres of private woodlands in Maine. “Print Grows Trees” is a trademark of the Education Fund, Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic.

 

Sihl, LLC has announced updates to its FSC certification program including Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody certification of their Chesapeake, VA site and the addition of new FSC certified product to the Sihl branded portfolio.

"We are very proud of our company’s ability to attain FSC Chain of Custody certification," said Phil Hursh, President and CEO, Sihl, LLC. "Sihl has a long history of developing systems that guarantee our customers receive the products that they ordered in an accurate and consistent fashion and that includes our ability to meet the strict tracking requirements for our FSC labeled products."

Products that carry the FSC logo are manufactured from papers made with cellulose from responsibly managed forests. FSC certified paper grades with FSC labeled packaging is designed to help consumers make socially and environmentally responsible purchasing decisions. Sihl’s TriSolv, PosterColor, TrueColor, Bastille, and DiaJet paper product lines are all FSC certified "Mixed Source" grades.

Sihl, LLC in Chesapeake VA, is the most recent company within the Diatec group of companies to attain FSC COC certification. Sister companies Arkwright Advanced Coatings Inc., USA, Sihl GmbH, Germany and Diatechnologies, France are also FSC / COC certified locations.

"Greenwashing"—over-promoting your "green" credentials—is one of today’s headline-grabbers.  What are the facts?  What’s right?  What’s wrong?  Who decides?  Corporate Responsibility (CR) Magazine, a leading US publication, recently ran a webinar where two experts separated "green" from "greenwashing" in the graphic communications value chain.  What does "sustainability" mean at the intersection of paper, printing and packaging?  In the communications war between pixels and paper, which is really "green?"  What are the metrics that matter?  And how can you avoid "greenwashing" in your own print-versus-pixels business decisions?

CR Magazine Publisher and author of The Post-Carbon Economy Jay Whitehead chaired the no-holds-barred live discussion with two of the world’s top authorities on the pixels-versus-paper sustainability debate:

Martyn Eustace, Director of the Two Sides sustainability initiative took part in the debate, having recently been tackling the issue of “Greenwashing” with leading blue-chip companies including British Telecom (BT), British Gas and Standard Life.  Not only does Martyn have some 30 years industry experience as a former CEO with leading national paper merchant groups Howard Smith Paper and Premier Paper, but he is also a member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ turnaround panel, managing director of Newvizion, and worldwide expert in sustainability and effectiveness of the graphic communications value chain.

Martyn presented case study evidence to show how issues with companies such as BT and British Gas had been tackled and how, following lengthy discussions between Two Sides and BT, BT had changed their messaging and stopped using environmentally incorrect messages on their material such as customer statements and their website.

Also taking part in the debate on behalf of the industry was Lewis Fix. Lewis is VP Brand Management & Sustainable Product Development at Domtar Paper.  Lewis is broadly published on the topic of sustainable paper and forest products and manages company relations with the many NGOs in the environmental and forest management communities. Lewis is also a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) pioneer and launched “Truth in Paper”. He has been with Domtar for eight years and seen 14 of Domtar’s 15 mills become FSC certified.

During his presentation, Lewis highlighted what he referred to as the “Six Sins of Greenwashing”. These included elements such as vagueness, irrelevance, fibbing and no proof, all of which have added to the use of Greenwashing by leading international companies.

The one-hour debate highlighted that there is still a lot of work to do if “Greenwashing” is to be removed, but more importantly that companies that are putting out these messages need to be tackled and engaged, as endorsed by Martyn during his contribution.

CR Magazine’s webinar series is widely recognised for bringing today’s hottest sustainability and responsibility topics right to your desktop. There were a large number of participants from corporate and public sector organisations in North America and beyond.

 

Two Sides, the initiative to promote the responsible production and use of print and paper, and encourage its use as an attractive, practical and sustainable communications medium, continues to add influential global leaders to its list of members. Domtar Corporation, the largest integrated manufacturer and marketer of uncoated freesheet paper in North America and the second largest in the world based on production capacity, has joined the campaign, helping to take the Two Sides’ message beyond Europe.

“Domtar is proud to be part of the Two Sides campaign. Domtar is at the forefront of the responsible use of paper, and we collaborate with several environmental organizations to encourage environmentally sound, sustainable forestry practices, high levels of recycling and the use of renewable energy at our manufacturing facilities. We’ve joined the Two Sides campaign because it’s another effective way to help achieve two of our primary goals: highlight that paper is environmentally sound and also encourage people to print responsibly,” says Lewis Fix, VP Brand Management & Sustainable Product Development.

Martyn Eustace, Two Sides Director, comments: “Domtar has invested heavily in reducing its environmental impact so we are delighted that the company is giving its support to our campaign. They too seek to explode the myths that lead people to think that using paper is damaging to the environment and I am sure we will be useful allies in the effort to re-educate end-users, helping them to recognise that paper is actually the sustainable way to communicate. ”

 

Seiko Epson Corporation today released its Sustainability Report 2010, detailing the business, environmental and CSR initiatives undertaken by the Epson Group in fiscal 2009 (April 2009 – March 2010) as it works toward becoming a truly sustainable enterprise.

This year’s Sustainability Report contains two feature sections detailing how Epson aims to achieve its SE15 Long-Range Corporate Vision, announced in March 2009. The first feature, “Create, Produce and Deliver”, looks at Epson’s “customer value creation process” from the perspectives of customer satisfaction, quality assurance, and sales & marketing. The second feature reports on the SE15 Mid-Term Environmental Policy, which spells out the milestone environmental goals for 2015 as the Company works toward realization of its Environmental Vision 2050, announced in Brussels in 2008.

For the second year, the Sustainability Report will be released in digital form only on the corporate website. The report may be viewed at and downloaded from the following link http://global.epson.com/community/sr/

Two Sides, the UK initiative to promote the responsible production and use of print and paper, and encourage its use as an attractive, practical and sustainable communications medium, today announced that it is actively challenging companies which use greenwash to mislead consumers regarding the environmental benefits of alternative media.

Two Sides is requesting that companies carefully consider their messages and the potentially misleading anti-print and paper statements that are being made such as: 'go paper-free and do your bit for the environment' or  'e-billing is more environmentally friendly than the traditional paper bill'.

"It is important, when companies promote their products and services, that they do not damage the Print and Paper industry and jeopardise the livelihood of the many thousands of people employed therein with possibly misleading statements," says Martyn Eustace, Two Sides Director. "We will react to misleading statements whenever they arise and we are engaging with major corporates and utilities. There has, so far, been a reluctance to discuss but I have recently detected a changing attitude and realization that the issues which we are raising deserve debate and consideration."

Through its continuous monitoring, Two Sides often notices a lack of adherence to CSR guidelines. CSR Europe is the leading European business network for corporate social responsibility and its Sustainable Marketing Guide states that 'Green' claims should be truthful, accurate and able to be substantiated and not make comparisons unless the comparison is relevant, clear and specific. "It is clearly wrong," says Eustace "to claim that a product or service, for example a switch to online communication, is 'better for the environment' or 'uses less energy' without supporting evidence."

The link between reducing the use of paper and helping the environment creates a false impression about the sustainability of print and paper. Paper is a renewable and recyclable product that, if responsibly produced and consumed, is an environmentally sustainable media. In Europe, where 93% of our paper comes from, the area of forest has grown by 30% since 1950 and is increasing at a rate of 1.5 million football pitches every year. The forestry and paper industries are major guardians of this precious and growing resource.

The belief that e-communication is more environmentally-friendly than print is generally unproven and there is a lack of life cycle data to support such claims. What is increasingly clear is that electronic communication, and in particular the energy requirements of the increasing worldwide network of servers which are necessary to store all the information needed for immediate access, has a significant and increasing carbon footprint. Electronic communication and document storage must be recognised as delivering efficiency but not necessarily greater sustainability. In the UK it has been suggested that PC's and servers may consume up to 50% of the country's energy requirements in the next 10 years.

As Martyn Eustace explains, "Whilst all the benefits of electronic communication are clear, and initiatives to reduce waste are to be encouraged, Two Sides is concerned that incorrect and damaging impressions are being given if alternative e-communication channels are promoted as 'green' or seek to gain credibility by purporting to aid sustainability at the expense of responsibly produced print. All channels have an environmental impact and print remains a vital and effective part of the modern marketing and communication mix. We are asking all those who use the environment as a means to encourage customers to switch from print to e-communication, largely to reduce costs, to re-examine their messages as it is certainly not proven that this results in a lower carbon footprint. In fact, considering all the environmental costs of electronic communication, print and paper may well be the environmentally sustainable way to communicate."