This Month's Spectrum Summary:

(The following is an excerpt from the July 2008 issue of Spectrum, a proprietary monthly briefing published exclusively for the clients of I.T. Strategies, Inc. © 2008)

The Sustainability Challenge
How “green” can printing become?

If the rise of ink jet were the leading technological theme of drupa 2008, sustainability, the one of more global importance was every bit as evident in the stands of exhibitors in Dusseldorf. Sustainability encompasses an array of issues that are tightly bound to printing. It includes the many details involved in recycling of papers and substrates, inks and toner, and all types of equipment. It is about working to ensure less waste, reusing rather than destroying, and avoiding use of toxins, heavy metals and limiting production of noxious gases. Equipment manufacturers and paper companies are making a point of addressing the environmental and sustainability issues and making them part of their respective ongoing corporate strategies. All recognize that the entire “supply chain” of printing —the process from tree to press to mailbox to trash—has historically been anything but a “green” one, and that given the shadow of climate change, companies must take the initiative and set an example for customers and other companies.

Equipment vendors and paper companies are highlighting their efforts in “sustainability reports” that discuss the issues surrounding environmental responsibility and describe the efforts their respective firms are taking with respect to environmental stewardship and these guide firms as they develop products for the future. Five areas are key:

1. Environmental Conservation
2. Global Warming Prevention
3. Resource Recycling and Conservation
4. Substance Management
5. Education & Citizenship Outreach

The complexity of these issues extends beyond printing. Many manufacturing, chemical and power generating industries are already tightly regulated, and many print providers are well acquainted with federal, state and local rules for disposal of waste water, chemical and other effl uent. The question for the printing industry moving forward is what our global approach should really be. I.T. Strategies does not pretend to have the answers or even a vision about how our industry should move forward, but wants to pose some questions we consider worthy of further thought and study. These include:

• Standards regarding manufacturing processes and materials and environmental impact of manufacturing.
• Global management of chemistry related to printing.
• Reduction of print volumes, perhaps via digital an/or decentralized printing, and a commensurate decline in transportation costs.
• Reducing of print-related power consumption
• Recycling by producers and consumers of print

One of the important points around sustainability is paper usage. Printing fewer pages digitally obviously has less of an environmental impact than printing many more pages using offset printing. Fewer resources are used, and fewer pollutants enter the waste stream. Recycling enters the mix here, but as more pages are recycled the scope of the benefi ts are not immediately clear.

There are also questions for the equipment vendors who have published their sustainability reports. Some of these include:

• Is equipment manufactured in ways that minimize waste and control energy use and allow for most of a machine do be recycled at the end of its life?
• Do press manufacturers support sustainable forest initiatives?
• Are ink and toner container retrieval and recycling programs actively promoted?
• Are inks and toners engineered to be fully recyclable?

Vendors often adopt two extreme positions: One is to make a statement that sounds good but whose actual consequences are not explained. On the other hand, they may explain so much that the overall specifi c contribution that a company or product makes is lost. Vendors need to take steps to be clearer and more forthright on these issues.

Print providers can adopt a positive or negative position, but they must react one way or another because we are at a juncture where businesses and individuals must decide how they will work and live in the years ahead.