Success Goes Green

The "Environmental Dialog" event held in March this year at the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg showed that "green" printing is proving to be a real recipe for success. Innovative print shops took this opportunity to present their latest solutions and share information. Among those present was the company that recently won the Heidelberg ECO Printing Award for the most sustainable company.

Environmental protection can be ingeniously simple. For example, the Stark Druck print shop in Southern Germany uses waste heat from its presses to heat not just its own premises, but also those of a neighboring mail-order company. Many more sustainable and highly cost-effective solutions like these were presented at the "Environmental Dialog" event.

Most sustainable print shop
The event provided the framework for the award ceremony for the Heidelberg ECO Printing Award. Hemlock Printers Ltd. from Burnaby in Vancouver, Canada, won the main award, which comes with a prize of 30,000 Euro. The winner was chosen by a panel of international judges. For more than 20 years, the company has been setting benchmarks in ecological printing and impressed the panel with its integral approach, which incorporates climate-neutral, alcohol-free and almost VOC-free production, administration and building management (i.e. energy-saving lighting, insulation) as well as transport logistics for goods and employees. 

Hemlock also applies its sustainable approach to its choice of paper, consumables, and methods of disposal. For example, instead of throwing away surplus inks, the company mixes them with fresh inks in its own laboratory. A special computer program supplies the necessary "recipe". The Canadian company is also leading the way in terms of aggressive marketing strategies for printing on environmentally friendly paper (recycled and FSC). Fresh impetus and a lot of new ideas come from the 240 employees, who are getting actively involved in the program through their own working groups. The "Dumpster Dive" initiative is legendary. Top managers themselves perform spot "dumpster dives" to monitor the success of the waste separation scheme. Hemlock also passes on its comprehensive know-how by holding lectures and seminars throughout North America.

Most innovative solution
Yoshida Printing from Nigata, Japan, was the unanimous winner of the Heidelberg ECO Printing Award in the "Most Innovative Solution" category for its "Fresh Print" concept which is geared towards on-demand production of short print runs. Yoshida Printing allows its customers to print products as and when they need them. An annual framework agreement details the number of copies and the total price. The "Fresh Print" concept enables changes, i.e. to the prices or content, to be incorporated into the next print batch at short notice. This solution minimizes the risk of print material - such as catalogs - containing obsolete data or becoming soiled through storage. This concept is not only kind on the customer's wallet - it also cuts paper consumption and waste paper.

How to…
Participants at "Environmental Dialog" - a good dozen print shops from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, whose operations are particularly environmentally friendly - also had the opportunity to present their solutions and exchange best practices. "It makes good economic sense to gear your company towards ecological principles. Our environmentally-friendly principles have helped us win new customers and bigger orders," says Ralf Lokay, owner of Lokay Druck, based in central Germany. The company's operations are climate-neutral and VOC-reduced. Two-thirds of the paper it uses is FSC-certified. The next topic on the agenda is improving energy efficiency - through upgraded building insulation and heat recovery from the pressroom.

Motivation is the key
Participants at the event were in agreement - "green printing" is more about attitude than the technology itself. Panel spokesman Achim Schorb from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) in Heidelberg hit the nail on the head when he said: "Even the most environmentally-friendly presses from Heidelberg will come to nothing if printers are not interested in eco-friendly printing." Some print shop representatives said that it is the decision-making structures of print buyers that are causing the problems. They believe that customers are interested in environmentally-sound print products, but that it is often not the customers placing the orders, but the buyers. And they are only interested in one thing - the price.

New ECO website
Extensive information on environmental management, sustainable printing, and innovative, end-to-end solutions can be found on the ECO Printing Award website . Heidelberg intends to hold the ECO Printing Award every two years from now on.