You are in:
Carbon neutral: here we go
Just as this issue of Screen Process and Digital Imaging was heading for print I did a rather unusual thing: I pulled it back to rewrite the leader. The reason why? Well as I listened to the morning news I heard that Marks and Spencer had just announced ‘Plan A’, a business-wide £200m eco-plan which is designed to impact every part of the company over the next five-years.
I quickly scrutinised the summary of the 100-point plan to look for issues relating to wide format printing. A couple of points caught my eye immediately. For example the company aims to stop sending waste to landfill and find new ways to recycle and reuse materials. Likewise it aims to use only wood which is recycled or certified as coming from a sustainable source by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or equivalent standard where FSC wood is not available. This will include marketing materials.
Some 25-years ago seatbelts were a consumer novelty. Now seatbelts, airbags, side bars and a multitude of other safety feature influence our buying habits. I believe society’s foolish management of scarce resources, now identified, will have a similar sea change in the print industry.
Where M&S leads others will follow. Print suppliers must take note, fast. Their customers are creating the ‘pull’ while equipment and consumable innovations are creating the ‘push’. Printers sit in the middle, ready to profit by completing the circle.
With all this bubbling to the surface you won’t be surprised to see an Environmental Category in the all-new Screen and Digital Printing Awards (see page 10).
Jon Barrett, Editor
