Environmental

The future's bright, the future's green

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2007 will go down as the year in which the UK printing industry woke up to the environment. This issue records the rapid increase in companies with ISO 14001; FSC, which was a minority concept a year ago, is now mainstream; and carbon footprints, which were unheard of 12 months ago, are being demanded by print buyers.

For printers, faced with squeezed margins and the task of filling presses over a long cold summer, the extra demands of ecologically fired-up buyers are as welcome as another downpour to the British holidaymaker. That is the short term.

For the whole environmental issue is not going to go away. For sure the demand for Chain of Custody in paper will fade as all papers meet the requirement, just as the scares about chlorine bleaches have gone. But the issue of carbon footprinting, VOC emissions, energy and waste are here to stay. These will be another factor in shaking up the industry and those companies that cannot reform their processes will be the victims. Those that remain will be stronger for it because there is clear evidence that a concern for the environment shows up on the bottom line.

The longer term result of growing government and public concern about the environment will be a deeper questioning about the impact of all media, not just print. Packaging, especially plastic packaging, is already under fire. And print will come out of this well, provided the right message is delivered. Paper is by its nature a renewable resource; it is recyclable and ultimately it is biodegradeable. Electronics, plastics and so on may not be so easily dealt with. But it is print and paper that is in the firing line. The argument needs to be turned. Changes may be necessary to curb some profligate activities – free distribution newspapers littering the streets, excessive direct mail and huge numbers of returns from unsold magazines for example – and if this can be done, print can emerge as the clean, green communications medium.