There are a number of voluntary schemes available to printers who want to monitor and improve their environmental performance. The options vary according to company size and, therefore, resources.
Because all companies are so different, the emphasis is on environmental awareness and continual improvement. Companies are audited annually and targets for individual companies are set.
As these schemes are not standards as such, it is important to remember that two companies holding the same accreditation may well be at different levels of environmental performance. The longer a company has been accredited the more progress it will have made.
The main scheme undertaken by UK printers is ISO 14001, but for small companies the cost of gaining and maintaining this accreditation can be prohibitive. For small companies, there are schemes such as Greenmark and the British Printing Industry Federation (BPIF); these schemes can also be used as stepping stones towards ISO 14001.
IS0 14001
This is an internationally recognised scheme. It provides a framework for environmental awareness, monitoring and continual improvement, but doesn’t tell the full story, because different companies can be performing at different levels – as explained above. The three key areas to be managed are:
- Compliance with environmental regulation
- Prevention of pollution
- Improvement in environmental performance
Examples of results achieved under ISO 14001 by various subscribers to the scheme include:
- Improving recycling rates, leading to a 50 per cent reduction in landfill waste
- Reducing energy consumption (gas and electricity) – eg. energy-efficient light bulbs, replacing faulty thermostats
- Monitoring and reducing water usage
- Donating outdated computers and office equipment to charities rather than chucking them away
- Cleaning and storing plates for future re-use if the job is likely to involve a re-print
- Where possible, combining print deliveries with client rep visits to save fuel used for transport
The irony of the relative lack of take-up of ISO 14001 within the printing industry is that all companies investing in this scheme report reduced costs in their day-to-day running.
United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) www.ukas.org
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Look for this logo when evaluating ISO status (this applies to quality and environmental standards). The United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services.
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UKAS regulates the auditors.
EMAS
This stands for the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme, an initiative designed to improve companies’ environmental performance. Its aim is to recognise those organisations that go beyond minimum legal compliance. In addition, it is a requirement of the scheme that participating organisations regularly produce a public environmental statement that reports on their environmental performance. It is this voluntary publication of environmental information, whose accuracy and reliability is independently checked by an environmental verifier, that gives participants in the EMAS scheme enhanced credibility.
Greenmark www.green-mark.co.uk
The Greenmark award was developed by the London Environment Centre (LEC), part of London Metropolitan University. In working towards the award, companies reduce their environmental impact in various concrete ways such as buying recycled paper and paper from renewable sources, switching to computer-to-plate technology to cut out film developing, replacing mineral-based inks with vegetable based inks to reduce solvent consumption, and increasing energy efficiency through improved insulation and lighting.
BPIF Environmental Assessment Scheme www.britishprint.com/business/eas.asp
A scheme for smaller companies in its own right, or for medium-sized companies – with greater resources – as a stepping stone towards ISO 14001. It is aimed at assessing, monitoring and reducing environmental impact and consists of eight levels.
FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) Chain of Custody www.fsc-uk.org
If a printer holds the FSC Chain of Custody and the paper being used in a project is FSC certified the end product can be labelled as FSC certified. This certificate is about the fibre tracking process only and ensures that there is no contamination between FSC and non-FSC material. It is important to emphasise that this scheme is material-focused and nothing to do with the environmental performance of the company in question.
