Studying printing’s sustainability shift

If you believe the Copenhagen summit ended up all show and no real substance, you’re not alone. Phillip Lawrence is of the same mind. Well-known in the Australian print and paper industries for his forthright views on environmental practice, Lawrence (pictured) says Copenhagen could never have succeeded because the most important topic was never raised. That topic is the consumer.

“Interestingly, population hasn’t been on the agenda, and the reason for that is the developed world knows the problem is not actually population, but consumption.

“The population debate has been pushed aside a bit, just like it was pushed aside at Copenhagen, because it’s just too hard. Also, the major environment groups that were prominent at Copenhagen have strong links to some of the world’s largest corporations and, logically, a reduction in consumption is not on their agenda.

“That’s why consumption was on the ‘no’ list at Copenhagen. It’s because the world thrives on growth,” he says.

Like most of the business world, printers are driven to expand. An effective growth strategy is the modus operandi of most print companies. Lawrence asks: “Why do companies have growth as their target? If you ask any company anywhere in the world, they will always say that their aim is to grow. Why? Growth is a modern concept in business. A definition of sustainability is whether a society can sustain itself for a thousand years.”

Where does print fit in all this? The medium carries an environmental stigma that is doing it harm as the general population latches onto the idea that electronic alternatives are not only more useful, but are environmentally friendlier.

“Print is an interesting animal, because when we eventually have to measure the legitimate carbon footprint of a business, you’ve got to separate the business from the product,” says Lawrence.

“When we do that and print is compared to other media, print actually stacks up incredibly well. I’ll go so far as to say that print is probably 95% less damaging to the environment compared with its nearest mass-media competitor.”

“Print is massively more efficient than people give it credit for,” reckons Lawrence. “If you look at the industry back in 1985-90, presses were big heavy clunkers of machines, hand-washed with toxic solvents and chemicals. Pre-press was all film and chemicals, scissors and knives, big arc lights, silver, vacuum frames. It was very much a dark science.

“At Drupa 1990, we saw a change with glimpses of digital workflows and technology. If you look at the industry today compared with 1985-90, then pre-press is a completely different industry. Pre-press alone has reduced its footprint by about 90-95%. No other industry has been through what the pre-press sector has been through.

“The difference between the latest Heidelberg or manroland press and those of five years ago is something like a 40-50% reduction in electricity usage alone. In the same time frame, the automotive industry has managed an average reduction of about 8% in fuel use,” reckons Lawrence. “So the print industry has made a phenomenal reduction in its eco footprint. But nobody knows about it – it’s a very well-kept secret.”

Impressive statistics, but did the industry pushed itself into that position – or was it pulled? History has proved that change doesn’t come easy to many businesses.

Lawrence says print isn’t necessarily owed any greater environmental kudos. “There are pockets in the industry that are environmentally driven, but the majority of print businesses are just driven by customers’ whims. But that is the same around the world. Very few companies around the world have grasped the issue of environmental performance because they are still subservient to the fundamental rule of business in modern society: your first obligation is to your shareholders and/or growth.”

Paper’s role
Making paper is a major contributor to environmental degradation. With pulp and paper production come deforestation, dangerous chemical processes and huge power demands. Look at the debate about the construction of the Bell Bay pulp mill.

“There’s a reluctance to sign it off, but there’s a need to sign it off. We need the economic development and jobs but we want to make sure it’s best practice. I think it will get through. The jobs issue will get it through,” he says.

Also look at the webcast recently conducted by ProPrint, and the poor environmental reputation that follows Asia Pulp & Paper, especially in the West. As a consequence, the whole industry gets tarred with the same brush. But the APP story is also a reflection of a wider trend in the pulp industry, says Lawrence.

“We’re seeing a major shift in paper production. As economic development shifts into Asian and South American countries, so does paper manufacturing. We’ve realised that the speed of tree growth in Asia is so fast that the crop rotation is so much more efficient.

“For the longer term, I think we’re going to see a fairly rapid decline in the paper industry in Europe. We’ve already seen a significant number of mill closures in the last couple of years. I think there are more to come over the next year. Paper can be manufactured in south-east Asia much more effectively with much more effective resources.

“We’re going to see Asia regain its place in the global economy. So I think that in about five years or so, we’re going to see an almost non-existent paper industry in Europe. China has 4.6 million tonnes of paper coming on stream in 2010. That’s not the total – that’s extra tonnage. Europe has just closed down five million tonnes of paper production.”

Paper is now assessed by several environmental certification systems. Lawrence also points out that certification schemes are not designed to continually improve performance. “One of the problems in Europe, with EMAS and

ISO 14001 and so on, is there are no targets, so European companies achieve different levels of quality, but still get their certification.

“In China, the whole paper industry said to the government that they will emit a certain amount of carbon emissions, here are the numbers, and the numbers are lower than in Europe and North America. So the Chinese paper industry is more environmentally sustainable than the European industry,” he says.

“Australia is largely an importer of paper products. That’s because the economy has shifted from being a manufacturing economy to a service-based economy. Manufacturing jobs are going offshore. That’s not a bad thing – although I’m not saying it’s a good thing either. It’s just a fact of life that jobs are going to shift around as part of globalisation. Globalisation is about jobs that people don’t want to do any more, such as dirty manufacturing jobs, going to places where people will do them.”

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