Recycling waste is for the birds January '08
With five print sites and a lot of presses and finishers, Repropoint found that it was generating a lot of waste. Did you know the RSPB has a recycling service? more

Improving environmental performance in digital printing December '07
Bill McCausland, Envirowise production specialist, explains how having a resource efficiency policy can be a competitive advantage for printers. more

Top ten tips for energy saving December '07
Here’s how to save a bundle and feel good because you’re helping to save the planet too. Most of our tips, gleaned from environmental bodies, are free and just need the application of common sense. more

Bio solvents – where’s the beef? December '07
What’s the real story on plant-based ‘bio’ solvent inks for wide format inkjet? Arethey good enough yet and how green are they anyway? Nessan Cleary investigates. more

Océ thinks positive about carbon December '07
A carbon offsetting scheme for Océ’s VarioPrint 6000 printers aims to absorb or otherwise take out twice as much CO2 as it emits. Nessan Cleary reports. more

Rhos bloom bigger in Peckham August '07
A bigger eco-friendly factory has allowed McKenzie Clark to install some seriously large print and cutting kit and win a lengthy Olympics job. Simon Eccles took the tour ...more

Carbon neutral comedy. Seriously August '07
Hollywood’s new-found environmental concerns aren’t all greenwash. We look at two print campaigns that were designed to be carbon neutral from the start... more

Repropoint relates its eco-experiences July '07
Recycling, energy saving, environmental damage, eco-friendly and unnecessary pollution to name a few are terms we hear everyday, but are they just buzzwords or can companies really make a difference and reduce their carbon footprints? ... more

Recycling, energy saving, environmental damage, ecofriendly and unnecessary pollution are terms we hear everyday, but are they just buzzwords or can companies really make a difference and reduce their carbon footprints? Digital print services chain Repropoint has worked hard to turn environmental awareness from just a tickbox item into part of its everyday business.

Now it wants to spread the message. The company says it is being open about its policies in the hope that it will encourage more businesses to follow suit. It took a corporate decision to become ‘a leader rather than a follower’ in becoming an environmentally and energy saving company. By instigating a number of practices and making sure they are carried out as part of the normal day to day operations the Repropoint sites now recycle more than 90% of all waste, and they are also actively reducing energy consumption and adopting more environmentally friendly consumables.

Sales director Daniel Bennett says: “Repropoint looked into recycling several years ago but were surprised to find costs prohibitive, and due to there being less suppliers, it was time-consuming and difficult. Recently we decided to try again to look into the possibilities of recycling and energy saving, kicked off by inviting Envirowise to do an energy audit. We wanted to find out if things had changed in that time and on investigation, it had.

“We were initially responding to what is a popular concern among our customers but also our staff and ourselves. With Surrey leading the UK in household recycling we knew how easy it had become to recycle at home. Reports on landfill sites were also a worry and we needed to consider this in our practices.”

Mike Webb, chairman of Repropoint adds: “There is a duty of care in the community now and recycling is just one way of reducing landfill, but we felt we also had to look at preventative measures, starting with a ‘switch it off’ campaign across our branches – encouraging staff to turn all lights and plugs off at the sockets each day to save energy. The awareness campaign within Repropoint starts at board level and we have a section of our board meetings dedicated to discussing environmental issues and how we can improve our own carbon footprint; along with a section of our newsletter since 2006. Trying to get things right first time can make all the difference in waste volumes!”

Repropoint originated in Woking in 1975 and now boasts five branches across the UK. It claims that its print room in Woking is the largest digital printing facility in the south of England, based around a pair of HP Indigo 5000 digital offset colour presses, plus colour and mono toner based laser printers, all running alongside traditional litho presses.

Consequently Repropoint gets through a fair amount of paper and toner cartridges In a year, across the group. It is also part of the GDL Colourlink Group, of which there are 32 bureaux in the UK, one in Ireland, 20 in France and 16 across the globe.

First find your recycler
Warwick Seymour, based in Repropoint’s Portsmouth office, started looking again into recycling paper waste and found a company fairly easily, yet when it came to trying to get the suppliers on board, the task ahead was more eco-unfriendly. “The larger the company, the less they wanted to help and obstacles started to appear to their dismay,” Webb says. “Finally they found Dove Recycling, a Hampshire based social enterprise that provides businesses with the resources needed to start a recycling program in the workplace. Things finally started to happen.”

Not satisfied with just doing the basics, Repropoint realised that recycling paper doesn’t just mean that it’s sent to a company to be turned into something else –the source of paper is important too.

The group is now actively seeking accreditation from the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) which means it could complete a ‘Chain of Custody’ for paper.

The PEFC Council is an independent, non-profit, nongovernmental organisation, founded in 1999, which promotes sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification. The PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

The Forest Stewardship Council enables you to buy forest products of all kinds with confidence that you are not contributing to global forest destruction. FSC certified forests are managed to ensure long term timber supplies while protecting the environment and the lives of forest-dependent peoples. (FSC certification can also cover non-timber forest products such as latex and foods.) A system of Chain of Custody certification traces forest products through the supply chain to the endconsumer. Repropoint is aiming for 90% of all its printing to be done on FSC approved stock.

Paper chase
Bennett adds: “To be able to meet these exacting standards set out by the FSC we have to approach all our current suppliers, who in turn, must also have this accreditation. Ultimately as a company whose base service relies on paper, we are aiming to achieve that all of it comes from sustainable forestry; for ourselves as a successful digital print business and for our customers.” On the consumables supplies side Repropoint also tested a recycled 90 gm2 white media roll for architecture and line drawings printed on its HP Designjets, with the aim of offering it as an alternative to conventional bleached bright white papert.

Methods to save paper in the first place are also in place as an example here shows. Previously 40% of orders were confirmed by e-mail which was then followed up with a hard copy quotation. Repropoint originally believed this was necessary as it contained its terms & conditions of sale. After researching and discovering that actually this wasn’t necessary, it now simply puts a link on each e-mailed confirmation or quotation, leading to the general T&C’s on its website, plus a hyperlink to any specification sheets or special offers relating to to that quotation. This eliminates all the paper involved in sending out hard copy T&C’s.

Repropoint boosted its website security so this method could also be applied to to invoicing and account status; customers now have password-protected areas where they can view their statements at any time, from any location. This brings commercial benefits to Repropoint as well as helping the environment. Another area of recycling waste is with toner and ink cartridges. Many manufacturers offer to recycle empty cartridges free of charge – however, those manufacturers pay certain charities to recycle them. Repropoint decided to include the middleman and help raise money at for the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). It sends disused cartridges in regular batches to the RSPB which in turn is paid for recycling them.

Emission Controls
There are many other ways of being environmentally friendly and air pollution counts towards any company’s carbon footprint if its business involves traveling or deliveries. In addition to regularly servicing its current vehicle fleet and using additives to ensure they run as cleanly and efficiently as possible, Repropoint also proposes to replace all vehicles, when needed, with modern, energy efficient vehicles such as hybrid cars. Bennett says ”We have replaced one of our sales cars with a Toyota Prius hybrid car, bringing us one step closer to our goal of zero emissions.”

Good quality ‘waste’ such as the end of paper rolls, off-cuts of foamboard, card, surplus or obsolete stock are passed on to local schools and charities free of charge. Strict procedures are in place for hazardous waste, which is either disposed of safely or returned to the manufacturer for disposal. China tea/coffee mugs and glasses are used rather than disposable items.

Repropoint is now upgrading its premises to improve insulation and heat conservation levels and continually monitors waste and energy consumption levels.

The Portsmouth branch has just moved into brand new premises in the Pompey Centre close to Portsmouth Football Club. It’s holding open days on 15 and 16 January, so if you’re in the area you could go and inspect its green credentials first-hand.

Contact Repropoint:
T: 01483 740483
W: www.repropoint.com.

Useful links:

• ColourLink Group: www.gdl-colourlink.co.uk

• Dove Recycling: www.doverecycling.co.uk

• Envirowise: www.envirowise.gov.uk

• FSC: www.fsc-uk.org

• PEFC: www.pefc.co.uk

• Premier Paper: www.paper.co.uk

• RSPB: www.rspb.org.uk

• Woking Borough Council: www.woking.gov.uk

An increasing number of digital print customers are demanding high levels of environmental performance from their suppliers. Companies that take action to reduce their environmental impact and become more sustainable can therefore secure a real competitive advantage.

Print buyers often have their own CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policies to adhere to, and they implement these by asking their suppliers to demonstrate positive environmental credentials. In a tendering process, this can mean that printers who do not have an environmental policy in place can be discounted as early as the pre-qualification stage.

Resource efficiency plays an integral part in organisations’ efforts to become more sustainable.

Essentially, this means using raw materials, water and energy more effectively and cutting down on waste whenever possible.

Improved resource efficiency can result in a range of welcome side effects, including a positive public image and its associated competitive edge. Companies can also expect the process to result in increased productivity and perhaps most significantly, cost savings that go directly to the bottom line.

Becoming more resource efficient and reducing waste can also help to ensure that environmental legislation is adhered to. For printers, there are a number of key areas where improvements can be made.

Paper and substrate
Being able to demonstrate green procurement should form an important part of any environmental policy, and is a useful first step for printers looking to make efficiencies in their operations. Furthermore, Government is leading a trend in establishing best practice for green procurement across central and local government, which in time is likely to have a knock-on effect in the private sector.

The UK currently consumes approximately 12.5 million tonnes of paper and board per annum, of which over 4.7 million tonnes ends up in the waste stream. From an environmental perspective this is a waste of valuable resources and, if put into landfill, produces methane gas, a major contributor to global warming. Paper wastage can be as high as 13% in the digital print sector. However, being a natural material, it is easily recycled.

When it comes to the procurement of materials, substrate is a key area to be addressed particularly because the source of the fibre is increasingly questioned by print buyers. While the use of 100% recycled substrate is not always a viable option, printers who do set a recommended level of recycled content as a benchmark could benefit, both in terms of customer loyalty and the potential to charge a premium for using sustainable stock.

Digital substrate costs up to £3,000 per tonne – significantly higher than that of traditional media. While digital printing can offer much lower waste levels than traditional litho print processes (especially for wide format), substrate waste may still be a costly problem for toner ‘presses.’ Printers should consider how much waste is planned into each job and strike a balance between the cost of building in ‘overs’ and the risk of a reprint if the job is short. Choosing a sheet size to minimise trim and area loss is important and clients should ideally be encouraged to avoid designs that require a bleed. It is also worth considering how layout can be optimised, for example by nesting shapes to minimise area loss.

Hazardous waste
Hazardous waste has become more of an issue for printers following the introduction of the Hazardous Waste Regulations in 2005. The Regulations brought in new controls and procedures for the movement of wastes, as well as increased responsibility on the pro-ducer for wastes generated. Many solvent-based inks and washes, for example, need to be separated from general wastes and disposed of as hazardous. Responsible disposal of items such as toners and ink cartridges can be expensive. However, printers may find that they are able to make real savings by simply picking up the phone to their suppliers. A number of suppliers operate take-back or re-fill schemes, which could help companies significantly cut disposal costs over a period of time.

Water
Another excellent, but less obvious way for printers and copy shops to make savings, is by targeting areas of water use in the workplace, such as toilets and taps. While this might be outside the core commercial activities, it shouldn’t be ignored – particularly as it offers real potential for cost savings.

As water becomes an increasingly expensive resource, printers are advised to carry out an audit to understand current use in each part of the company’s premises, particularly washrooms and kitchen areas. This will help identify exactly where potential savings can be made. Keeping and reviewing records of water usage allows the company to measure the success of any water minimisation practice and helps to identify any irregular consumption.

Packaging
Packaging is an additional area where efficiencies can be made. Printers should be aware of exactly how much packaging is used on a daily, monthly and annual basis – and to have a good understanding of how it is designed, manufactured and disposed of. This could include everything from protective materials used for storage or transport, to consumer packaging the company has helped design and print for a finished product. The majority of manufacturers take back the packaging on equipment for reuse and recycling. However, significant quantities of packaging materials can be received from suppliers. There are a number of options for dealing with packaging waste. For example, where products are excessively packaged, printers should voice their concerns with the supplier or re-use the packaging for outgoing printed products.

Digital printers may increasingly find themselves in a position where they are asked to specify or input to the design of product packaging. In practice, this means that printers may have to negotiate with their suppliers on the type of materials required for a particular job –or discuss the implications of packaging design with a wider project team. Additionally, anything printers can do to reduce or re-use protective or transit packaging will help to lower costs and reduce raw material use. Paying attention to packaging in this way is crucial, not least because any company that designs, specifies or produces packaging – including imported packaging – must comply with the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations (2003). These regulations dictate that packaging volume and weight in the UK market is limited to the minimum amount that is absolutely necessary.

Non-hazardous waste
In addition, the latest step in the Europe-wide Landfill Directive means that since the end of October this year, every business is required to treat its non-hazardous waste before disposal to landfill. Treatment can be as simple as collecting wastes in separate streams and arranging for the recycling of one or more of the separated components. Other options include thermal treatments such as incineration.

In the longer term Envirowise hopes these new rules will encourage companies not just to focus on the treatment stage, but to consider whether their waste needs to be generated at all. The more businesses can do to reduce the use of raw materials at the outset – the more resource efficient and cost-efficient their operations will be.

Today, the business case for becoming more resource efficient is growing stronger and stronger. By embedding resource efficiency in all parts of the business and developing a clear, shared vision for change, companies can improve their environmental performance and also save money.

Envirowise can help printing companies improve their environmental performance. The Envirowise website includes a section dedicated to the print sector at www.envirowise.gov.uk/printing. Guidance and support is also available by calling the Envirowise Advice Line on 0800 585 794.

1. General energy-saving
Measure how much energy you’re using, and try to work out what’s used, where, and by what equipment or area. Unless you know what you’re paying, you won’t know what impact the changes make. Keep track of your bills, and how they change as you introduce energy-saving routines and systems.

Most savings just need common sense, and are either free or don’t cost much more as you install equipment on normal investment/replacement cycles. If you’re really committed to energy reduction, you might want to explore exotic technologies such as solar panels (for electricity or water heating), wind turbines and geothermal heat pumps, but so far they cost so much that they’ll take decades to pay for themselves with any savings, even though government or local grants can sometimes be obtained to help things along. The Carbon Trust reckons biggish offices waste £6,000 each year by leaving equipment on over weekends and bank holidays. Just getting your employees to turn off their monitors when they go home can make a big difference. We go into more detail about this stuff further down the page.

2. Speak to colleagues and employees about saving energy
“ You need to lead by example, but it’s also important to make it a team effort” says the Carbon Trust. “Ask employees where they think energy is being wasted, and encourage them to think about how they can all use less.”

Less loftily, if you make it a challenge and not a duty, you’ll get more response. Most people have got the environmental message, and if they haven’t their kids will be nagging at them. Offer little incentives for departments that do the most – boxes of chocolate biscuits or silly mugs, can work wonders.

3. Lighting
Daylight is free, so use it. If you’re designing an extension or new building, arrange the windows accordingly (though current building regulations limit window area on other environmental grounds, of heat-loss). Replace any surviving incandescent light bulbs with energy savers. Yes, that’s obvious and many factories and offices have used efficient fluorescent tubes for decades. But look at what’s inside old desk lamps and train your staff to switch them off when they go home. Set up room and factory floor lights so that they don’t all need to be on at once, and switch them off in unoccupied areas (motion sensors and timers may help here). Hook up timers to switch room and area lights off outside working hours – overrides and motion sensors can take care of late workers or the security guys on their rounds.

If an area gets too hot in summer, consider fitting reflective window films, which should help cut the air conditioning and fan costs. Modern double glazing often has heat reflection/retention coating, but remember to fit it the right way round (and yes, our builders got it wrong, until we read the label).

4. Computers and peripherals
Switch them off when they’re not in use. Everyone forgets to do it when they go home, but they all have utilities that you can set so they’ll shut down outside normal hours, and even start up five minutes in advance of the working day. Some servers and RAID stores really do need to be on all the time (especially web servers running your web-to-print business). Office printers and scanners have standby modes but check if they can be switched off completely by timers without harm.

Macintoshes running OSX, and some other Unix/Linux devices, are programmed to do housekeeping in the middle of the night when they won’t interrupt normal work, but they can be set to wake up, sort themselves out and then switch off again. Modern LCD monitors use a lot less energy than old CRTs, which aren’t made any more. Note that next generation monitors will probably use LED backlights instead of fluorescents, and these use even less power. They’re used on a couple of Apple laptops already.

5. Heating and cooling
You want to keep your factory and offices cool in summer and warm in winter. The smart way is to combine insulation and heat recovery to do at least some of the work for less cost. New buildings have to be energy efficient up to certain standards, and the really advanced ones are designed so that natural convection keeps temperatures fairly constant for free. There are also clever evaporative systems that only use about 10% of the energy of conventional heating/cooling. Printers often need big loading doors and we all know about plastic curtains to retain heat. But have you thought about dividing up big production areas this way so you’re not heating areas that aren’t in use? Some machines could heat their immediate area with no extra effort, and you can open the curtains in summer to let the heat disperse.

In winter, do you really need to turn the temperature up high? You don’t have to seem like Scrooge to your employees’ shivering Bob Cratchetts, but point out the benefits of woolly jumpers and warm socks. Move desks and clutter away from radiators, draught-proof the windows and doors, and keep doors closed. Don’t put hot equipment next to cooling vents, and don’t put thermostats in a cold draught.

Store rooms, corridors and unused areas don’t need to be as warm as working areas. However try to keep the paper store at almost the same temperature and humidity as the print room or you’ll have problems.

6. Industrial electric motors
Next time you need to replace one ask about a high efficiency version. It may qualify for tax relief as part of the Enhance Capital Allowance scheme. Switch off when not in use, as they still use electricity when not on load.

7. Compressors
Make sure they have space around them for cooling air to circulate. Also check for leaks regularly – the Carbon Trust reckons that energy consumption of many compressors can be cut by up to 30% just by tightening up joints and eliminating leaks. Reducing the pressure by 1 bar (15 psi) can save around 7% of energy.

8. Vehicles and journeys
See p4, Zeitgeist, for the future of road vehicles. Meantime, do all the obvious fleet management things to cut fuel consumption. Cut out unnecessary journeys by careful planning and multiple drops per run (OK, rush deliveries are part of life, but not everything is needed yesterday). For sales staff, make sure that when it comes time to renew their cars, they are given the latest high-efficiency models with diesel or turbodiesel engines. Nobody really needs a big 4WD SUV unless they’re selling print to Welsh hill farmers and Scottish crofters. There’s a new crop of high-efficiency, practical cars that emit less than 120 g/km of CO2 and will qualify for the new lowest road tax of £35 per year – they’re very fuel-efficient too. It’s the same story with vans and trucks for deliveries – modern ones are getting very efficient. There are now some all-electric models for local delivery runs that don’t behave like milk trucks.

9. Avoid over-ordering that leads to waste
Finally a couple from Envirowise. Many paper merchants will deliver next day so there is little need to keep large stocks. Ensure order quantity takes your current stocks into account. Ordering special sizes or paper types for a one-off job can be a problem when there is a minimum order quantity. Think about what left-overs: can they be used on future jobs? If you’ve got to store stock over longish periods, make sure it’s rotated so that the oldest stock gets used first (FIFO = First In First Out). Mark the incoming stock with the date of delivery so you can keep track. Train your operators to take care in handling and unwrapping paper to avoid damage and creasing which can cause paper jams and rejects. Are they clear what to do with any left over paper at the end of a job?

10 Think about packing
Packaging takes energy to make, move, store and dispose of. Cut down on what you use – take out anything that’s not functioning to protect goods in transit. Re-use raw materials, pallets and boxes for packaging the finished product. It’s tempting to use new packing because it looks pristine, but you’ll create just as favourable an impression if you let the customer know you’re recycling materials as part of an environmental policy. Design prominent explanations into your goods labels and delivery notes to impress the customer. Likewise if goods arrive excessively packed, don’t be shy about letting the supplier know. Keep it diplomatic, point out they can cut costs too, and they’ll think you’re great and deserve a discount. Some hope.

If you’re working in packaging design and print, you know all about the competing pressures of big and bold (and so harder to nick) packs versus minimalism, so we won’t lecture you any further.

Over the past two years the wide format industry has become increasingly interested in using environmentally-friendly products, as with the rest of the printing industry. This is largely driven by customers, who are themselves under pressure to demonstrate their green credentials. So a bureau that can claim to be environmentally-aware in its wide format printing could hopefully gain a competitive advantage. There are several biodegradable media substrates around, but the solvent-based inks that are typically used for most commercial wide format printing are a different matter altogether.

Of course we’ve known for years that solvent inks were pretty unpleasant - this is the reason why you must use ventilation with full solvent printers. Conventional full-strength solvent inks release vapours into the atmosphere as they dry by evaporation. These not only smell pretty bad but they contain harmful volatile organic compounds (or VOCs) For these reasons there is a general move within both the EU and the US to pass legislation to restrict the use of solvents in industry, and this is one reason why so many ink vendors are advocating the use of UV-curable inks, which don’t suffer from these problems (they still release some VOCs, but very little).

The major issue with solvents is health and safety, rather than environmental, because the VOCs are known to cause respiratory problems. Indeed, there’s no evidence that UV inks are likely to be any more environmentally-friendly than their solvent counterparts and the recycling issues of what’s essentially a tough plastic coating on the media are open to question, although you could argue that UV inks are less bulky to transport.

Recently a new class of ‘bio solvent’ inks has emerged which is said to be more environmentally-friendly. EFIVutek has led the field with its range of BioVu inks, developed by its subsidiary company, Inkware. These inks use a solvent called ethyl lactate. There’s nothing new about ethyl lactate, which has been used to make inkjet inks before. What is new is that Inkware has synthesised the ethyl lactate from corn starch, whereas in the past it was derived from petrochemicals. There’s no other solvent used in these inks – the corn-based ethyl lactate accounts for about 80 per cent of the volume, with the rest being made up of pigments and resins.

Jolly green ink?
Corn, of course, is a renewable resource, which is apparently more environmentally-friendly than distilling petrochemicals from fossil fuels. In addition, the binders used in these inks to help the pigments stick to the substrates are made of soya beans and wood pulp, which are also sustainable/renewable materials.

Clearly corn is also a biodegradable resource, but once the ethyl lactate has evaporated from the media you are essentially left with a plastic film, much as you would be with any other ink, so how biodegradable are the BioVu inks? Judith Vandsburger, Vutek ink sales and marketing manager explained: “One of our media suppliers has done a landfill site test in which the results showed that not only the material degraded in the landfill, but also the inks on the material. So basically the end product of the printed image is sodium, which is salt.” So far, so good, although just about everything will degrade if it’s left long enough, and Vandsburger did not know what period of time was the involved in the test.

There’s also good news in the disposal of the inks. Vandsburger says: “We have done some testing in the New Hampshire area, and the lab came back to us to say that the BioVu inks in their liquid form don’t present any potential hazard so they could be disposed of normally.” However, she did point out that different regions might have different regulations. Still, if the same holds true in the UK then it should mean there are no additional costs in disposing of these inks.

Vandsburger also says that these inks have similar performance characteristics when compared with conventional solvents: “The colour gamut is within five per cent of the range of UltraVu 5, which are our traditional solvent inks so the colour gamut is very similar.” She adds: “The durability is the same. The warranty that we give is two years outdoor with no coating and then an extended five years with a proper coating.”

The biggest problem that Vutek faced in developing these inks was in their adhesion to substrates, which is a known problem with ethyl lactates, and one of the reasons why ink vendors have traditionally favoured other, more aggressive solvents. Vandsburger claims: “We know that the BioVu inks work very well on substitute or pressure sensitive vinyl, they work very well on textiles, and very well on papers. The materials that are a little bit trickier are the PVC-based materials because the solvent is not as aggressive as a traditional solvent and therefore it doesn’t eat the PVC as much as the traditional solvent inks. So on PVC materials there have been some challenges, and we keep testing materials every day.” She adds that it makes most sense to use these inks with biodegradable materials, where they have worked well on some high profile poster campaigns.

EPA certification
In addition, the BioVu ink has been certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as meeting the criteria laid out in its Design for the Environment initiative.This encourages companies to develop products which reduce the release of toxic chemicals. So far BioVu is the only solvent ink to meet this standard.

Vutek has developed a full process colour set, namely cyan, magenta, yellow and black, as well as light cyan, light magenta, light yellow and light black. The inks were initially offered only with the UltraVu II 3360, but they are now being tested for use with the 5m wide 5330.

Mutoh has an arrangement with Inkware will be selling its own version of the BioVu inks under the brand name Mubio. The first model to use it will be the new ValueJet 1608 Hybrid (see the News section). We’ve also been told that the Korean Keundo printers use Vutek inks, and that BioVu inks will be offered for these printers.

Earlier this summer another ink vendor, MegaInk, based in the Czech Republic, also announced its own bio ink, known as BioMG. Unfortunately MegaInk refused to tell us anything useful about these inks other than that they might be loosely based on corn or soya, and appear to be mainly available for those printers fitted with Epson printheads, such as the Roland SJ-series. The UK vendor will be Grafityp, though it was were still waiting for the inks when we called them.

Lite solvents
Several other ink vendors have also made claims about the environmentally-friendly nature of their inks, including Israeli company Bordeaux Digital Printink which earlier this summer launched a range of what it describes as ‘green’ solvent inks. These inks appear to be ‘lite’ solvent inks but Bordeaux refused to substantiate in what way they were any more environmentally-friendly than any other solvent inks.

Tony Cox, business and marketing manager for graphic and digital products at Sun Chemical, says there is no difference between lite, mild or eco solvent inks, explaining that they all use similar solvent types: “None of these solvents, mild or full solvent have any difference in terms of their impact on the environment. They all have exactly the same affect. The only environmental affect is the working environment, where the mild solvent inks tend to be lower odour.” He points out that the ‘eco’ in ecosolvent originally stood for ‘economical’ and not for ‘ecological’.

He goes on to say: “The reasons we use these solvents is to get adhesion, but also to dissolve resins to give good long term stability. The strength of the solvent gives those two properties. Mild solvents tend to be slightly weaker, lower odour versions of similar solvents, and quite often mild solvent inks actually contain smaller quantities of the more aggressive solvents.”

He adds: “We are actively trying to find milder solvents that give similar properties and we are producing milder solvent mixtures as a result of that.”

As a general rule, lite solvent inks contain similar solvents to their full solvent counterparts, but in lower loadings, usually just below the level that would trigger a hazard warning being slapped on the ink. This does have a health and safety advantage so that there is less requirement for full extraction (it’s still a very good idea to have a well-ventilated environment). However it affects the performance of the inks, which are normally best used with coated media (pricier than uncoated), and often have problems with the more difficult media such as plastic and vinyl.

In short, although there may be many good reasons for using a lite or mild solvent ink, there doesn’t appear to be any particular environmental advantage in them. In contrast the BioVu inks do appear to offer some genuine environmental advantages – though the uncertainty is a shame as they’ve been around long enough for EFI-Vutek to have done some more convincing tests in terms of the amount of time it takes for them to biodegrade.

We’ve all heard about carbon neutral schemes for print. Now Océ has upped the anté with what it claims is the first ‘carbon positive’ scheme. It’s on offer to users of its new VarioPrint 6000 series digital mono production presses. Océ claims that using the press and following its free advice programme can actually take twice as much CO2 out of the atmosphere than it puts back, as long as you follow the programme. Most carbon reduction schemes only aim for neutrality, so by actually reducing carbon this scheme could be a particular help for printing companies that want to be able to declare they are carbon neutral –the ‘spare’ CO2 reduction could be used to balance out CO2 emissions on another process or activity.

Océ unveiled its carbon positive scheme for the VarioPrint 6000 at the London Digital Print World show in October. It aims to replace twice as much carbon as is initially lost as CO2 for each of the 6000 series printers that it sells or leases for a minimum of 12 months, with the scheme guaranteed to run until at least November 2008.

The scheme is being administered by environmental consultant Shining Earth, which is part of Delta-Simons Environmental consultants. According to Delta-Simons’ managing director Gareth Pickles: “The 6000-series has a very low footprint and Océ has a plan to break the machines down at the end of their life. We have measured the energy consumption of the 6000 through various calculations. We can test the different uses of the machine and get a model that tells us the carbon emissions of the machine over five years for things such as water and energy consumption.”

The carbon positive scheme looks at the energyconsumption and carbon emissions of the VarioPrint 6000 when it’s operating. It doesn’t take into account the resources used by Océ to develop, make and market the printer. Nor does the scheme include consumables such as the toner that the machine uses.

It also seems unlikely that Océ will offer the carbon positive scheme with any of its earlier printers, mainly because the scheme is designed to capitalise on the fact that the 6000-series has a fairly low carbon footprint to start with. Ed Hudson, Océ’s marketing manager for Digital Document Services, says: “We do have good asset recovery schemes so this is a logical fit for this technology. If you take this scheme to its ultimate then there’s no reason why a company couldn’t have a carbon neutral profile.”

Delta-Simons looks at ways in which businesses can improve their carbon management and overall environmental performance as well as specifics such as dealing with contaminated land or legal compliance. Its Shining Earth division concentrates on helping companies achieve better environmental performance, and in marketing this to help enhance that company’s profits. Pickles says: “Océ wanted to do more but did not know what, so they came to us.”

Shining Earth has helped Océ put together a combination of international offsetting ideas. To start with it has picked three schemes, which include investing in renewable energy in China, methane capture in Germany and tree-planting in the UK.

The scheme also involves a two-day consultancy as Pickles explains: “Océ are also paying for us to go into their customers to look at their environmental profile to see if there are other ways that they can improve their environmental performance in ways which can be quite painless and low cost. This can enhance the bottom line of their business if you can reduce water, gas and electricity costs. So we are saying that good environmental performance is good business.”

The first company to sign up for the scheme is Wiltshire-based Priority Mailing, which specialises in polywrapping, database management, high speed black and white printing and selective inserting. The company signed the order for a VarioPrint 6200 at the DPW show. Managing director Terry Turner commented: “Obviously quality of print is the primary reason for buying the printer. But we were aware at that time that it did use less carbon than some of the other machines on the market, and it doesn’t need as much heat to fuse as some of the other machines, so that was a plus that made us buy the machine anyway.

“And then when the carbon scheme came along that was just an additional plus to us. We will now have an analysis done by Océ at our plant to see what other carbon saving we could do, and that will encourage us even further down that line.” Pickles concludes: “It’s not just about a machine, it’s about a package of things to improve both Oce’s and their customers’ business.

www.oce.com/uk

When large format print specialist McKenzie Clark moved all of 50 m to a brand new, bigger and ecologically wonderful print factory in March, it crossed the postcode boundary from London SE1 to SE15. That’s Peckham, Only Fools And Horses territory. Hence a booking for Cockney rockers Chas and Dave to play at the factory’s launch party at the beginning of July. This drew more than 250 customers from a Who’s Who of customers who place work for brands such as L’Oreal, River Island, De Beers, Samsonite, Asprey, Thomas Pink, as well as the more culturally oriented British Library, National Maritime Museum and BBC.

The main reason for the move was space. The old building, which the company first occupied in the early 1990s, was fine for McKenzie Clark’s photolab business and was originally divided into a series of darkrooms. As the company moved into ever larger digital printing and finishing operations, particularly for signage, there was no longer enough room. Moving to the larger factory with its 1,750 m2 floor area and 4.2 m high ceilings has freed up McKenzie Clark to install some massive kit and to go after new types of work in signage and display.

In total the spend has been just over £1 million, says MD Graham Clark: about £600,000 on new production equipment, and £400,000 on fitting out the building.

Actually the new factory and most of the kit has been operating since April, apart from one missing player. A Durst Rho 350R roll printer was installed first. Its companion, the world’s first Rho 800 Presto UV flatbed/rollhybrid, was due a couple of days before the launch party. When Image Reports July went to press in late June, we reported that the Rho 800 was turning up on 2 July. By the time IR reached readers a week later, it was already out of date: at the last moment the delivery was postponed for three weeks. McKenzie Clark’s existing Rho 205 flatbed has filled the production gap, but this will be sold once the six-colour, 2.5 m Rho 800 is running.

Now Durst says it will deliver on 24 July, just after IR goes to press again. So by the time you read this, there may actually be a Rho 800 up and running in Peckham.

The larger factory has allowed McKenzie Clark to install a Durst Rho 350R, a big fast 3.5 m wide UV inkjet configured for roll-to-roll work, and a huge Zünd cutting table that can handle sheets of practically anything up to 4 x 2 m, with camera-controlled automatic registration. A 2.05 m Rho 205 used in the old factory has been retained for rigid materials until the Rho 800 arrived. A couple of Durst Lambda colour transparency recorders are still used regularly, mainly for backlit Duratran output for lightbox displays. However, Clark expects the UV printers to increasingly take over their role. Hot and cold-seal lamination completes the regular finishing equipment, though there’s a small department for hand production of any unusual stuff that needs production by hand.

“We do some installations, and we also do lot of packing by store, where sets of material are tailored for individual sites and delivered together,” says Clark. A big sig nage job for a major multi-site music retail chain has just gone through in this way.

Clipped to a light box when we visited were a couple of large format backlit pics of a face from a cosmetics company. “We showed these two samples to a major cosmetics company,” says Clark. “One is a Duratran from a Lambda and the other is a backlit UV print from the Rho 350.” There was no real visual difference from the normal viewing distance of a couple of metres.

“The UV material is 25% cheaper and tougher too,” Clark points out. “On a normal inkjet you see graduations in the highlights. With the 350 it’s a perfectly smooth vignette. At FESPA 06 and 07 we looked into them all and Durst had higher quality than any of the others.” The Rho 800 promises even better imaging than the 350, he says. “It will be almost as good as the Lambdas. The key is the quality of the droplets – the resolution is 600 dpi but the placement is carefully controlled. It’s also incredibly fast.

Before the move the company operated a large format HP Scitex XLjet solvent printer, but that’s now been sold to a company in Brazil. “The Scitex was slow and customers are increasingly asking for eco-friendly inks,” Clark explains. “Also the solvent was another problem to colour manage. Now we only need to profile UV inks.”

There’s an HP Designjet and a 1.3 m Gerber printercutter on the first floor next to the design department.“We do a lot of cut vinyl for inexpensive retail graphics,” Clark says. “These are mostly Illustrator/Quark files, so the printer and cutter are next to the Mac design department. We use the HP for 1,250 to 1,500 mm graphics. However the Rho 350 is now used to output backlit graphics and vinyl. We’re keeping the Designjet 5500 as a proofer for the Lambda.”

A new Caldera Rip, to be used for all printers, should help with the colour management, Clark hopes. “We work with a lot of different media, and we have the Lambdas, the Rhos, the Designjet. So we need to try to match them within their tolerances. The Lambda works in RGB, where the printers are CMYK. Malcolm Rose here does all the profiling and it’s almost a full-time job. Caldera claims that it will let us assess the colours are achievable, ie if a Pantone colour can be matched or not.”

McKenzie Clark is going to need all its extra elbow room. At the end of June it won a huge contract to produce and erect the 3 m high printed hoarding that will surround the Olympic building site until 2012. That’s a 5km length to be completed and installed by October/November this year. It’ll need an awful lot of Dibond: more than 3,000 sheets. That’ll give the Rho 800 a healthy workout. Lovely jubbly.

A more economical atmosphere
McKenzie Clark’s new factory is a lot more than just a shed to keep the rain off the printers. Running along the ceilings in the main working areas on both floors are strange flexible tubes about 60 cm in diameter, pierced with small holes. Looking like escapees from a Doctor Who set, they inflate or deflate at intervals: the building is literally breathing.

Clark explains: “We worked with a specialist company Harry Taylor to control the temperature and humidity area by area. They looked at the building and the airflow and came up with a complex proposal for climate control, mainly based on evaporative cooling. It uses far less energy than air conditioning, you can still use it with the windows open, and it doesn’t need horrible gasses, just water.” Peckham Spring water?

Evaporative cooling is a relatively new alternative to conventional air conditioning, predicted only to use 10% as much energy. A five year interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust is helping with the installation cost.

Our cool wet summer so far hasn’t tested it to its limits, though Clark says that the stairwell, which isn’t served, is noticeably hotter. It also has a spin-off benefit of humidifying the air, which helps to keep the paper conditioned. The system only works across large open areas, so small air conditioners are used in the handful of closed offices and meeting areas.

The ground floor production areas look like any modern but functional print factory, apart from the air circulation tubes slung from the ceiling. However upstairs is a visual treat, with glass-faced meeting and administrative offices grouped around a large open plan area occupied by design and production staff with their Macs. The ceiling tubes are concealed by bright orange cloth, though they still breath in and out. Callum Lumsden from the prestigious Lumsden Design consultancy was responsible for the space planning and modern look. McKenzie Clark has worked with Lumsden in the past on museum and brand print work.

From silver to pixels
McKenzie Clark has a £6 million turnover and employs 66 people, many with long experience in print and display work: “We’ve got people who’ve been with us for 20 years,” says Graham Clark. The company was originally a photolab, founded in 1961 by Vic Clark and photographer Doug McKenzie.

Vic’s son Graham (at right)worked as a photographer before he joined McKenzie Clark in 1985, becoming MD in 1994. The company’s first venture into digital was with a retouching system running on Silicon Graphics workstations in 1990, followed in 1995 by a Xerox electrostatic printer. A year later the first of two Durst Lambda laser colour film recorders was installed. Moving ever more into signage, the company was an early adopter of UV flatbed printing, with a Zünd UVjet 215 Combi. This was then replaced by a Durst Rho 160 for higher quality, and then the 205 (which will be replaced by the 800) and 350R.

Three years ago Clark appointed Phil Jones as company chairman and to advise on expansion. Jones has a lot of experience in guiding pre-press and print companies, having set up the innovative Real Time Studio digital pre-press and multimedia company in 1990. He’s also chairman of the digital agency Mook and brand agency Navyblue.

Hollywood’s new-found determination to wear its environmental heart beating greenly on its sleeve may strike some as slightly phoney. The private jets used by stars flying to a single movie premiere probably wipe out the lifetime benefits of their not-so-green-anyway Toyota Prius hybrid cars.

But, give them credit, some movie companies are trying to do the right thing with their printed promotions. In the USA the new movie Evan Almighty used Vutek’s BioVu corn-based inks and biodegradable vinyl for all its billboard ads. Closer to home in the UK, Sony used print management company Charterhouse’s ‘CarbonNeutral’ programme for all the promotional print for its Spiderman 3 preview event. Rather more significantly, Sony has also pledged to make the next two production runs of its main European product catalogue carbon neutral – this means two runs of 100-page catalogues in all European languages, adding up to about a million copies distributed across the continent, not just a few posters.

Schawk Los Angeles, a branch of the multinational print giant, used an EFI VUTEk 5300 superwide printer running vegetable-based BioVu inks onto Ultraflex’s BIOflex vinyl to produce a ‘green’ outdoor advertising campaign for the release of Evan Almighty at the end of June.

“Universal Studios is working to reduce its environmental footprint as Hollywood goes increasingly green,” said Stewart Huey, Universal Studios’ vice president of creative operations for print. “We believe Evan Almighty is the first carbon neutral comedy film production in the world, and we wanted to carry that into our advertising campaign. Our partnership with Schawk Los Angeles has been instrumental in making that happen. All of our vinyl pieces, including outdoor advertising campaigns, boards in both our Orlando and Hollywood parks, promotional banners for events and some in-theater displays, are being produced using VUTEk BioVu inks and biodegradable BIOflex vinyl from Ultraflex.”

VUTEk plugs BioVu as the first solvent-based superwide printing ink made from a renewable resource, corn. It has no harmful Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions and is classed as non-hazmat – lowering disposal costs. There are certainly some questions about durability and colour gamut, but these aren’t big issues for ephemeral movie signs. The BIOflex vinyl is formulated to turn to dust in landfills.

“When this project came up,” says Emily Hansen, large format department manager at Schawk Los Angeles, “we contacted EFI to explore the possibility of dedicating one of our three VUTEk 5300’s to BioVu ink as a test site, and EFI was quick to respond with its full support. Both Schawk and Universal Studios were delighted. Without the ability to produce ‘green’ vinyl display graphics, it would have been harder to achieve carbon neutrality for the promotional efforts associated with Evan Almighty.”

Universal Pictures also worked with the Conservation Fund to plant trees as further carbon offset for the film.

For the UK Spiderman 3 preview, Charterhouse worked with Sony to measure and neutralise all CO2 emissions associated with dressing the venue, including exterior and interior banners, door surrounds, popcorn buckets, ticket machine surrounds, waste bin covers and light-box posters. Around 400 people attended the showing, three days before the film’s official UK launch.

Promotional materials for the preview were also carbon neutral. These included souvenir ticket holders, posters and leaflets used to advertise the film around Guildford town centre after the official opening.

Sony’s Environmental Affairs Europe department funded the cost of the carbon offset of the next two runs of the product catalogue. This wasn’t a huge price to pay, says Guy Meyers, business development manager at Charterhouse. “It’s usually only 0.1 to 1.2% of the total job cost. The Sony environmental people wanted to use it as a message internally to the company in general.”

Repropoint originated in Woking in 1975 and now boasts five branches across the UK, so it gets through a fair amount of paper and toner cartridges In a year. It is also part of the GDL Colourlink Group, of which there are 32 bureaux in the UK, one in Ireland, 20 in France and 16 across the globe.

Repropoint has taken a corporate decision to become a leader rather than a follower in becoming an environmentally and energy saving company. Through instigating a number of practices and making sure they were carried out as part of the normal day to day operations the Repropoint sites now recycles more than 90% of all waste, and they are also actively reducing energy consumption and adopting more environmentally friendly consumables.

In this article it explains its philosophies and experiences so far. The company is being open about its policies in the hope that it will encourage more businesses to follow suit.

Sales director Daniel Bennett says: “Repropoint looked into recycling several years ago but were surprised to find costs prohibitive and due to there being less suppliers, it was time-consuming and difficult. Recently we decided to try again to look into the possibilities of recycling and energy saving, kicked off by inviting Envirowise to do an energy audit. We wanted to find out if things had changed in that time and on investigation, it had.

“We were initially responding to what is a popular concern among our customers but also our staff and ourselves. With Surrey leading the UK in household recycling we knew how easy it had become to recycle at home. Reports on landfill sites were also a worry and we needed to consider this in our practices.”

Mike Webb, chairman of Repropoint adds: “There is a duty of care in the community now and recycling is just one way of reducing landfill, but we felt we also had to look at preventative measures, starting with a ‘switch it off’ campaign across our branches – encouraging staff to turn all lights and plugs off at the sockets each day to save energy. The awareness campaign within Repropoint starts at board level and we have a section of our board meetings dedicated to discussing environmental issues and how we can improve our own carbon footprint; along with a section of our newsletter since 2006. Trying to get things right first time can make all the difference in waste volumes!”

Low enthusiasm for recycling
Warwick Seymour, based in Repropoint’s Portsmouth office, started looking again into recycling paper waste and found a company fairly easily, yet when it came to trying to get the suppliers on board, the task ahead was more eco-unfriendly. “The larger the company, the less they wanted to help and obstacles started to appear to their dismay,” Webb says. “Finally they found Dove Recycling, a Hampshire based social enterprise that provides businesses with the resources needed to start a recycling program in the workplace. Things finally started to happen.”

Not satisfied with just doing the basics, Repropoint realised that recycling paper doesn’t just mean that it’s sent to a company to be turned into something else – the source of paper is important too. The group is now actively seeking accreditation from the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) which means it could complete a ‘Chain of Custody’ for paper.

The PEFC Council is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, founded in 1999, which promotes sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification. The PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests. The Forest Stewardship Council enables you to buy forest products of all kinds with confidence that you are not contributing to global forest destruction. FSC certified forests are managed to ensure long term timber supplies while protecting the environment and the lives of forest-dependent peoples. (FSC certification can also cover non-timber forest products such as latex and foods.) A system of Chain of Custody certification traces forest products through the supply chain to the end-consumer. Repropoint is aiming for 90% of all its printing to be done on FSC approved stock.

Paper chase
Bennett adds: “To be able to meet these exacting standards set out by the FSC we have to approach all our current suppliers, who in turn, must also have this accreditation. Ultimately as a company whose base service relies on paper, we are aiming to achieve that all of it comes from sustainable forestry; for ourselves as a successful digital print business and for our customers.”

On the consumables supplies side Repropoint is also trialling a recycled 90 gm2 white media roll for architecture and line drawings printed on its HP Designjets. When testing is complete Repropoint aims to offer this as an alternative to conventional bleached bright white papert.

Methods to save paper in the first place are also in place as an example here shows. Previously 40% of oders were confirmed by e-mail wwhich was then followed up with a hard copy quotation. Repropoint originally believied this was necessary as it contained its terms and conditions of sale. After researching and discovering that actually this wasn’t necessary, it now simply puts a link on each e-mailed conformation/quotation, leading to the general T&C’s on the company website, plus a hyperlink to any specification sheets or special offers relating to to that quotation. This totally eliminates the paper involved in sending out hard copy T&C’s.

Repropoint boosted its website security so this method could also be applied to to invoicing and account status; customers now have password-protected areas where they can view their statements at any time, from any location. This brings commercial benefits to Repropoint as well as helping the environment.

Another area of recycling waste is with toner and ink cartridges. Many manufacturers now offer to recycle empty cartridges free of charge – however, the same manufacturers pay certain charities to recycle them. Repropoint decided to include the middleman and help raise money at the same time for the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). It sends disused cartridges in regular batches to the RSPB which in turn is paid for recycling them.

Emission Controls
There are many other ways of being environmentally friendly and air pollution counts towards any company’s carbon footprint if its business involves traveling or deliveries. In addition to regularly servicing its current vehicle fleet and using additives to ensure they run as cleanly and efficiently as possible, Repropoint also proposes to replace all vehicles, when needed, with modern, energy efficient vehicles such as hybrid cars.

Bennett says ”We recently replaced one of our sales cars with a Toyota Prius hybrid car, bringing us one-step closer to our goal of zero-emissions. Being a revolutionary combination of electric motor and petrol engine the result is not only outstanding fuel efficiency but still a great performance and reliable vehicle.”

Good quality ‘waste’ such as the end of paper rolls, off-cuts of Foamboard, card, surplus or obsolete stock are passed on to local schools and charities free of charge. Strict procedures are in place for the disposal of hazardous waste or returned to the manufacturer for disposal and china tea/coffee mugs and glasses are used rather than disposable items.

Repropoint is now upgrading its premises to improve the insulation and heat conservation levels in the building and continually monitors waste and energy consumption levels.

Contact Repropoint on 01483 740483 or visit www.repropoint.com.

Useful links:
www.pefc.co.uk
www.fsc-uk.org
www.woking.gov.uk
www.envirowise.gov.uk
www.paper.co.uk
www.doverecycling.co.uk
www.rspb.org.uk
www.gdl-colourlink.co.uk

Bottom line – One of the most compelling reasons for action is for printers to remain competitive and ahead of the rest of the market. As corporates such as HSBC (which last year announced it was committed to becoming the worlds first “carbon neutral” bank) look to reduce its carbon footprint it is inevitable that they will look to “green” the supply chain. Therefore when tendering for large contracts with these types of clients digital printers who are also CarbonNeutral and reflect the climate change policies of their clients are more likely to be selected as suppliers of choice.

Cost reductions – With energy and water prices rising rapidly developing a strategy to avoid and reduce CO2 emissions across your entire business will not only reduce your environmental impact but will potentially deliver costs savings. These savings are directly delivered by increased energy efficiency, better use of resources and better decision making when approaching areas such a business travel.

CarbonNeutral products – Printers that understand how to create and deliver CarbonNeutral products will also benefit. Clients looking to reduce emissions have to consider the impacts of the products and services that they procure. If these products are CarbonNeutral they won’t add to the clients’ carbon footprint and will align with a policy of minimising climate change impacts. As the debate on climate change moves beyond the causes and begins to focus on the solutions that are needed and where they should come from, so the pressures on business to become carbon literate will increase. Those companies who can get ahead of the curve, tackle their own impacts and begin to deliver CarbonNeutral products and services inline with the corporate strategies of the clients will not only be part of that solution, but will also be able to develop sustainable and profitable businesses for the future. Jonathan Shopley is the CEO of The CarbonNeutral Company, the leading full service carbon