Green Options

This week, everybody is watching the stock market and talking about the economy, but I want to do a little reality check here. Other than tweaking our portfolios, there isn’t much we can do about it. Was the bail-out the right decision? Was it not the right decision? Talking about it makes us feel better—as if it gives us some kind of control—but the reality is, it doesn’t. Why not take all that nervous energy and channel it into something really productive? A place where we can make a difference right away?

Did you know that by making some basic changes in your document management and print marketing, you can reduce your carbon footprint, use fewer trees, use less petroleum, and improve your bottom line at the same time? In today’s time of financial crisis, that ought to get any company’s attention. It starts, not with the paper or ink you spec, but with the fundamental way you print at your documents.

By utilizing today’s digital production technologies, you can move to document management models that have a major impact on the environment. By printing shorter runs—even for high-quality, four-color documents—you eliminate warehousing costs and the cost of outdated print, but on the environmental side, you avoid cutting down trees for nothing. Every time a book, a pamphlet, a flyer goes out of date and gets thrown in the trash, you just contributed to needless deforestation.

By making smarter use of your database—say, mailing to only the top 10% of your customer base—you reduce the amount of printed material you use. If you combine it with smart use of print personalization, you could earn even more revenues than on a larger static mailing.

Some great examples can be found in a new report on digital-printing-driven marketing models entitled “Digital Printing: Transforming Business and Marketing Models,” released yesterday.

Last time, I listed four characteristics of digital print production that endears it to those looking to green their print marketing. The fact that one of the three primary ink types used by digital presses (HP’s ElectroInk) uses solvent, however, may raise suspicion.

Solvent-based inks are used in other digital production processes—most visibly wide-format inkjet used for applications like banners, vehicle wraps, and signage—and those presses release VOCs and require venting. What makes ElectroInk different?

From an environmental marketing perspective, not all solvents are created equal. In the wide-format/display environment, the inks need to perform two Herculean tasks.

1. They must adhere securely to non-paper substrates like vinyl.
2. They often must be lightfast.

If they are used for applications like vehicle wraps, they must do both.

If you want to “green” your print marketing, one way to do it is to print using digital production printing. How is digital production “green”?

There are three types of digital print production:

• Dry toner (xerography)
• Liquid toner (used exclusively in the HP Indigo presses)
• Continuous inkjet (used both for light production and high-volume presses)

Because of the number of variables that impact the lifecycle of a printed product, and because of the strides being made by offset printers to green their operations, it is difficult—if not impossible—to make a categorical statement that “digital production is greener than offset.” However, there are some unequivocal factors about digital print that will please those looking to become more environmentally sensitive in their production and management of print.

The trash can…or not. Although many marketers consider the today’s applications driven by dry toner, liquid toner, and inkjet digital printing to be the technology’s greatest asset, the “green-ness” of the technology is a nice bonus, too.

This is important to marketers because environmental printing is no longer just good social responsibility. It’s good marketing. Companies with “green” programs have a marketing advantage through positive association. By utilizing environmentally responsible printing practices, this gives you a nice plug for your business.

How is digital printing “green”?

1. The output technology is socially responsible. 1:1 printing is output from digital presses. These presses use no process chemicals (although liquid ink presses and inkjet presses may use solvents in their ink formulations; dry toner presses do not). They use no film or plates. Start-up waste is minimal—10 sheets or less, compared to 100 or more sheets for most offset presses.

Although conventional wisdom is that digital inks are difficult to remove during the recycling process, this is outdated. An increasing number of digital press manufacturers are now promoting the de-inkability of their toners, even from recycled paper. This is true even of HP, whose liquid toner “ElectroInk” produces at or near offset-quality photographic quality but is suspended in a mild solvent, and even of high-speed inkjet presses like Kodak Versamark.

One reason many businesses hesitate to “go green” is because environmental responsibility seems too time-consuming and overwhelming.  It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that, with all of their other responsibilities, it seems like too much.

Just the thought of measuring the corporate environmental footprint—from measuring the carbon output of every office copier to the impact of the transportation methods of employees—is enough to send the poor manager tasked with the job into apoplexy.

But while “going green” may seem overwhelming, in reality, I see it as being a lot like my relationship with my dishwasher.