The campaign, driven by the Australian Paper Industry Association and spearheaded by CPI managing director Bernard Cassell, last week turned its sights on Telstra, which is urging shareholders to switch to electronic-based communication.
The group sent a letter to Telstra managing director David Thodey over the telco’s claims that it is helping to “tackle climate change by reducing waste and cutting carbon emissions” by migrating to electronic communication.
“We continuously take people on, unfortunately it’s a routine part of what we do,” said Cassell.
“One would hope that this would be an increasingly rare need, but we’re still seeing the misrepresentation and the lies, so we still have to fight back,” he added.
Meanwhile, the organisers have said they are still in need of further financial support.
The campaign is working with industry bodies such as Printing Industries and GASAA to help secure more funding.
Cassell said that while many associations had pledged their moral support to the campaign, the problem is that those associations “don’t have spare cash floating around”.
“Those other bodies are still grappling with how they can make an effective contribution to the campaign,” he said.
“I think there’s a misconception in this industry that these bodies have access to a mountain of cash, but many of them are living on a hand-to-mouth basis.”
Representatives from these associations and other industry figures met for a series of campaign briefings in Sydney and Melbourne at the end of March on how to combat its image of the industry as “a bunch of tree murderers”.
The most recent printer to sign up was prominent Melbourne company Bambra. Cassell said Bambra had already lent assistance by printing promotional brochures free-of-charge.
A series of ‘procurement seminars’ targeting print buyers are in the works. Cassell said the plans were purely in the ’embryonic’ stage, but added that seminars would help educate print buyers about the printing industry’s sustainability.
Another industry briefing for the campaign will also be held on 24 May in Adelaide.
Pictured (l-r): Fitzpatrick Woods Consulting principal Tim Woods, Geon’s Tony Onsley and Bernard Cassell at Sydney meeting last month.
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