APG lays out the choices

Aldridge Print Group gives clients a choice of different ways to improve environmental credentials of their print. It’s a simple to understand approach that benefits all sides.

Robert Aldridge first woke up to the environmental issue when his daughter, then at nursery school, started talking about a day her class had spent out on their local common looking at the discarded rubbish. “She started asking difficult questions about what happened to the rubbish at home,” the managing director of Aldridge Print Group says. “The next day we bought the bins and began sorting our rubbish at home and on the Monday I came into the office and saw things in a completely different light.”

From that time the Aldridge Print Group has been segregating its waste, sending as much as it can for recycling, changing the light bulbs and saving power wherever it can. “These were common sense steps,” he says. Then in 2003 it became one of the first printers to achieve ISO 14001 after a customer alerted Aldridge to the existence of the standard. Today customers are demanding that their printers have the standard as a matter of course and APG has added FSC and PEFC and the ability to offset the carbon produced in a job to the original ISO 14001.

The company operates from premises in Mitcham, south London, where it has full prepress, including the ability to image processless plates, a ten-colour and six plus coat B1 KBA Rapidas, and comprehensive finishing. The ink used is all vegetable oil-based, the presses run with minimal levels of IPA, electricity is sourced from a green tariff and consumption is reduced thanks to a capacitor to even out usage, and waste is kept to a minimum. What waste there is is segregated for recycling with the result that 95% of what could be sent to landfill is recovered for recycling or reuse.

Today APG is completely at ease with meeting the environmental criteria set by customers, demonstrating this by winning a place on the Pan-Government Print Framework, where its environmental performance was a key factor. The Government is keen to lead by example and sourcing arrangements for print reflect this.

However, the company is equally realistic to know not to force customers down one route only. James Sheehan is sales director and he says: “It’s not about us trying to be Swampy when we talk to customers. It’s about providing the options for each customer and each job that provide the most effective choice. We can image to processless plates, we can use recycled or part-recycled papers, as well as FSC, we can produce a job that is carbon neutral and can provide green lamination. It’s about creating a menu where the customer can choose what best suits.

“We promote this approach on our web site and in our marketing as APG Plus. It’s about giving customers some clear leads to understand the different approaches they can take.”

The basic level is called APG Green. The customer can then choose APG Green plus FSC, meaning that the paper chosen will be produced in accordance with FSC standards. Similarly APG Green plus PEFC does the same for the different forestry management accreditation. APG Green plus carbon neutral is the strapline that can be applied when the calculation of how much carbon is produced and then offset, through renewable energy projects endorsed by The Carbon Neutral Company, is made for the job. All this is explained on the recently relaunched web site.

“As well as being the right thing to do,” says Aldridge, “customers often don’t know that they want it and our job is to assure them that they do to meet their own requirements for their customers. More customers are confused about what they can and should do. Now we are beginning to do an increasing number of carbon offset projects, which does add to the cost of the job, but it’s doing something for the future.”

In order to offer this possibility APG called on the resources of the Edinburgh Centre of Carbon Management which has calculated APG’s carbon footprint allowing it to work out how much carbon any individual job will generate and then to provide the investment in a renewable energy project to save the same amount of CO2.

Internally APG has a well defined sustainable procurement policy to underpin all purchase decisions and to encourage the same attitude with its suppliers. Having organised the waste collection and consumable products, it turned to machinery investments. The environmental impact was a key reason for choosing the KBA ten-colour, which was the first KBA press in the country with environmental certification. Another aspect is that the company does like to stress the use of recycled papers wherever possible. “Our latest promotional work is printed on Revive 50:50 which prints very well and carries a solid metallic silver which has come up really well with no sign of mottling. Today papers like this have a good pedigree and the printed result is of high quality as well,” Sheehan says. A recent job, one of the first for the 2012 Olympics in London, had a Revive 75 cover and Revive 100 for the text. Even with this paper the quality of full-page colour images was exemplary.

It is this quality of print on what have been considered difficult substrates that won APG its place on the Government print procurement team. In turn this helps reduce the tender process for major contract work that has to be published across Europe. Around 25% of its current output is for the public sector, the remaining 75% for the private sector. Here, says Sheehan, construction companies like Mott MacDonald, energy companies like Shell and BP and travel companies are all interested in improving the environmental standing of their print.

"Customers often don’t know that they want it and our job is to assure them that they do to meet their own requirements for their customers." Robert Aldridge

“Often it is the board or the procurement director that sets the agenda on the one hand while we are also trying to raise awareness through talking about the environment and what can be done to minimise impact,” Sheehan explains. One of those steps is using RiteTransfer, a simple to use way of moving digital files via an icon on the customer’s desktop. This immediately removes the need for courier journeys and has security over email transfer.

The reduction and management of waste has been a big focus in the four years since the company gained ISO 14001. Across the plant there are the different bins to allow waste to be segregated and recycled where possible. Staff have been quick to make full use of them and have taken well to the recycling ideas. They are also encouraged to come up with waste saving and money saving ideas, earning recognition in the process. On a mundane level, sales staff will take the train rather than drive to visit clients in central London.

Just as important in cutting down on waste are the ISO 9001 quality management standard which minimises the sorts of error that always leads to a reprint or the production of unnecessary copies, and the print standard ISO 12647-2. By working to the requirements of this standard, the company cuts back on waste through having the confidence to get up to colour quickly. Sheehan reckons that on the ten-colour KBA a full job to job make ready will take 30 minutes. Alongside this press the company has a further B1 KBA, this offering 5/1 perfecting or six-colour plus coater printing.

At the end of the day, for APG the environment underpins the company’s thinking about how business should be conducted. It is about serving the clients and being prepared to respond to whatever is needed. Thanks to its own experience APG is able to help, advise and educate clients when they want to discuss ways to improve their environmental performance. For Robert Aldridge, this is essential for the future, not just the immediate future of his print business, but for the future of his still to be conceived grandchildren. “I’m not going to be around in 100 years, but my grandchildren will be. This is why I think we should be doing the right thing today. For the moment this is also very good business practice and it is helping to give us an edge that customers appreciate.”