Green practices beyond the marketing

By Ross Tieman - FT
Published: July 8 2008 03:00

The printing industry plays an enigmatic role in the sustainable business agenda.
Making paper requires trees to be felled, and uses lots of energy and chlorine, while printing, historically, requires toxic chemical compounds.
Yet many of the messages that have turned climate change into a leading global concern have been delivered on printed paper.
So the selection of Pureprint, an East Sussex printing company, as Small Company of the Year in the Impact on Society section of the awards is a sign of just how much vanguard companies in the industry are shouldering their responsibilities.
The irony is that the company's forerunner, the East Sussex Press, was a successful pre-green business, founded in 1926. But in 2004 it acquired Beacon Press at Uckfield and, moving its activities on to the site, swallowed Beacon's sustainability agenda lock, stock and barrel.
Renaming the enlarged group Pureprint, it set out to build a business model centred upon the green agenda. It was a smart move because, as studies have shown, 68 per cent of its customers say their decision to buy from Pureprint was influenced by the company's green credentials.
But this is no mere cynical marketing exercise. As Pureprint has rooted itself more deeply in a sustainable agenda, it has not only reaped benefits, but delivered a wider social impact that no-one could have envisaged.
The company has made savings of more that £100,000 a year from the more efficient and environmentally-friendly use of resources, and removed harmful products from its printing processes, resulting in an impeccable health and safety record.
Since 2005 - the year after the Beacon acquisition - the company has reduced by 30 per cent the amount of electricity and by 49 per cent the amount of carbon it produces per million pages printed.
But in last year's customer satisfaction survey, Pureprint also found that 79 per cent of its 160 employees were also satisfied with their jobs, and 43 per cent had been attracted to the company because of its responsible practices. These include investing in apprenticeships for 16 to 17 year-olds, and setting out consciously to be an equal-opportunities employer.
More than half of employees say they have changed their personal behaviour with regard to the environment because of what they have learned and, even more striking, 69 per cent of customers have also changed their views on environmental issues.
And what about all that paper, and all those felled trees?
The company has increased the amount of paper sourced from Forest Stewardship Council certified sustainable forestry and the use of recycled paper. These accounted for 87 per cent of the paper it purchased during the first quarter of 2008.
Its obsession with recycling even extends to the pallets on which supplies arrive at its works. These are turned into nesting boxes for birds, bugs and bats, and distributed to local schools, customers and its staff, building bridges with the wider community, and promoting local wildlife at the same time.
Printing may remain enigmatic, but it can clearly become sustainable.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008