Rob van den Braak
The graphics industry is massive and yet the number of printing organisations with more than 500 employees is small. This means that very large customers buy their print from a host of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Such organisations tend to be under the radar for most environmental reporting regulations, because their individual impact is likely to be quite trivial, although collectively it adds up to be large. The only time the printing industry’s SMEs really bother, is when their customers or shareholders require it. This is at once problematic and an opportunity for printing companies.
It’s problematic because it means that most print service providers are not compelled to bother with sustainability, so sustainability investments tend to depend on the motivation of company owners. But this lack of a widespread environmental ethic could also be an opportunity. This is particularly true for service providers working with organisations with a declared sustainability committment. Large enterprises such as Unilever, Astra Zeneca or Diageo take their environmental responsibilities very seriously. They tend to prefer working with suppliers who can support their sustainability compliance and accountability efforts. Being able to provide environmental footprint data is of considerable value to such clients. Print service providers who can do this have an easy edge over those who cannot.
The drivers pushing global companies to provide nonfinancial and diversity data are regulation, shareholder pressure and fulfilling declared commitments to reduce emissions. There are estimated to be some 3,000 companies worldwide producing annual sustainability reports and this number is rising. Companies understand that the planet needs more sustainable raw materials processing and greater energy efficiency. Printers working with data driven production tools have an opportunity to report on cradle to gate life cycle impacts. Printing contributes around 30% of the impact for all forms of printed matter, including packaging, displays, signage, books and newspapers. This is valuable data for customers.
The graphic arts development community has provided some basic tools for calculating carbon footprints, but these are not standards compliant so they don’t follow a common model. And there are many other reporting features we should be considering in workflow systems. Energy usage and emissions per job is an area ripe for development.
The pressure to provide sustainability reports is not yet particularly high. However in Europe, for some companies disclosure of diversity and nonfinancial data, including Corporate Social Responsibility data, will become a requirement by the end of 2016. The objective for this requirement is to improve consumer trust in progress towards a more sustainable global economy and to help identify sustainability risks. The number of companies required to provide sustainability reports will jump next year, so now is the time to prepare to support customers in their sustainability efforts.
Laurel Brunner
The Verdigris project is an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. It provides a weekly commentary to help printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines.
Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Epson, Fespa, HP, Kodak, Kornit, Ricoh, Spindrift, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
The graphics industry is massive and yet the number of printing organisations with more than 500 employees is small. This means that very large customers buy their print from a host of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Such organisations tend to be under the radar for most environmental reporting regulations, because their individual impact is likely to be quite trivial, although collectively it adds up to be large. The only time the printing industry’s SMEs really bother, is when their customers or shareholders require it. This is at once problematic and an opportunity for printing companies.
It’s problematic because it means that most print service providers are not compelled to bother with sustainability, so sustainability investments tend to depend on the motivation of company owners. But this lack of a widespread environmental ethic could also be an opportunity. This is particularly true for service providers working with organisations with a declared sustainability committment. Large enterprises such as Unilever, Astra Zeneca or Diageo take their environmental responsibilities very seriously. They tend to prefer working with suppliers who can support their sustainability compliance and accountability efforts. Being able to provide environmental footprint data is of considerable value to such clients. Print service providers who can do this have an easy edge over those who cannot.
The drivers pushing global companies to provide nonfinancial and diversity data are regulation, shareholder pressure and fulfilling declared commitments to reduce emissions. There are estimated to be some 3,000 companies worldwide producing annual sustainability reports and this number is rising. Companies understand that the planet needs more sustainable raw materials processing and greater energy efficiency. Printers working with data driven production tools have an opportunity to report on cradle to gate life cycle impacts. Printing contributes around 30% of the impact for all forms of printed matter, including packaging, displays, signage, books and newspapers. This is valuable data for customers.
The graphic arts development community has provided some basic tools for calculating carbon footprints, but these are not standards compliant so they don’t follow a common model. And there are many other reporting features we should be considering in workflow systems. Energy usage and emissions per job is an area ripe for development.
The pressure to provide sustainability reports is not yet particularly high. However in Europe, for some companies disclosure of diversity and nonfinancial data, including Corporate Social Responsibility data, will become a requirement by the end of 2016. The objective for this requirement is to improve consumer trust in progress towards a more sustainable global economy and to help identify sustainability risks. The number of companies required to provide sustainability reports will jump next year, so now is the time to prepare to support customers in their sustainability efforts.
Laurel Brunner
The Verdigris project is an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. It provides a weekly commentary to help printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines.
Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Epson, Fespa, HP, Kodak, Kornit, Ricoh, Spindrift, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
Pizza Hut likes to present itself as a tech company and emphasizes this by a unique pizza box. The box, with electronics included, can be turned into a two turntable DJ station. Don´t run out to Pizza Hut just yet as there are only a few branches in the UK that were supplied with a few of these boxes. Do watch the video about the DJ box on our videos page.
In October next year IPEX Birmingham will not only show new trends such as digital label printing, but will give special attention to the applications and the use of new materials.
Interaction with the visitors who will be invited to ask questions during and after the live demonstrations is one of the things that make this international tradeshow stand out.
More information about IPEX on how to participate and visit in the press release below.
Blokboek.com is official media partner for IPEX 2017 and will keep the readers up-to-date on the latest news and how to obtain free entrance tickets. Just like we did for FESPA and drupa.
What to expect to see at IPEX 2017
Volgend jaar oktober haakt IPEX Birmingham niet alleen in op nieuwe trends zoals digital label printing, maar richt het zich vooral op toepassingen en het gebruik van nieuwe materialen.
Managing and disseminating content is crucial for any publication. Especially if this content is being disseminated via multi channel publishing it can be very complex, time intensive and costly.
Digital Asset Management systems can help. From a simple plug-in such as Canto´s Flight by Cumulus DAM systems to enterprise ready systems such as by ADAM Software or Adobe.
ADAM software offers a Forester Wave report with a good overview of what is available and which criteria help you find the best solution. The report can be downloaded after registration via this ADAM link.
What is most remarkable is that the systems are good for one or more market segments and, further on in the report, that there are no bad systems. The quality is very much dependent on the supplier, with some who don´t offer good support and there are suppliers that have stopped the further development of the product. That could be fatal in an ever changing world, especially social media publishing.
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Het beheren, controleren en verspreiden van content is voor elke vorm van publishing cruciaal. Zeker als die content via multichannel publishing via meerdere media vormen verspreid moet worden kan dat een tijdrovende, kostbare en complexe taak worden.
Digital Asset Management systemen kunnen daarbij helpen. Dat kan met een simpele plug-in zoals Flight van Canto, de makers van de bekende Cumulus DAM systemen of met enterprise-ready systemen zoals Adam Software en Adobe die aanbieden.
Een goed overzicht van een groot aantal beschikbare systemen en welke criteria belangrijk zijn, is te vinden in het Forester Wave rapport dat via deze link van ADAM, na registratie, te downloaden is.
Opvallend is dat de in dit rapport genoemde systemen uitblinken in één of meerdere marktsegmenten en als je verder leest er geen slechte systemen zijn. Wel leveranciers die minder ondersteuning bieden of hun product niet verder meer ontwikkelen. En dat kan fataal zijn met de snelle ontwikkelingen in segmenten zoals social media publishing.
Lees verder....Pizza Hut presenteert zich graag als een tech company en onderstreept dat met een bijzondere pizzadoos. De doos, voorzien van electronica, is om te toveren tot een twee draaitafel DJ unit. Loop niet direct naar Pizza Hut want slechts een paar Engelse vestigingen hebben een beperkt aantal van deze wel heel bijzondere verpakkingen gekregen. Je kunt wel het filmpje van de DJ doos op onze video pagina bekijken.
Lees verder....
Specialist European paper distributor VBG Media will be showcasing the Mazina range of Lay-Flat paper products incorporating FlexBind® technology at this year’s Photokina 2016 exhibition in Cologne Germany.
Visitors to the show who are servicing the professional photographer and consumer markets will be able to see a wide range of papers and finished books highlighting the benefits of offering a Mazina Lay-Flat product.
VBG will be accompanied by the USA manufacturer Holmberg and will have commercial and technical representatives on hand to discuss any aspects and answer any questions.
VBG CEO, Neil Bather, comments “This will be our first Photokina and we’re looking forward to being in Cologne. We are a great fit for many of the business owners and decision makers who typically attend the exhibition. Many of our existing customers visit Photokina and we’re hoping to meet many more this year.”
Photokina attendees can find VBG Media on the Mazina stand in Hall 3.1 on Stand D-12, in Cologne Germany 20-25th September 2016. http://www.photokina.com/
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The Washington Post recently published an interview with Tim Cook, for the occasion of his 5 year anniversary as Apple CEO. It was quite a learning cure. ” You’re both praised and criticized, and the extremes are wide — very wide. And that can happen all in a day. You build up — my skin got materially thicker after August 2011.” This refers also to the negative publicity about the decreasing iPhone sales.
The most interesting quote in the interview has to do with augmented reality. We know that Apple has long been interested in this technology, but in this interview Cook confirms that they have a team working on developing and researching this. ” Think AR [augmented reality] is extremely interesting and sort of a core technology. So, yes, it’s something we’re doing a lot of things on behind that curtain that we talked about,” he said laughing.
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Since digital publishing usually goes hand in hand with print publishing and social media publishing is getting increasingly popular there is a high demand for apps to help accomplish this.
This app should ideally be capable of converting highly automated digital workflow content for different screen sizes, resolutions and operating systems, but also manage editing and publishing workflow.
Hardly easy because of the complexity of the matter, the cost and the interface between systems and existing data.
Adobe is one of the only companies who have a solution for all of this, but it is very costly and be prepared for a steep learning curve.
Based on Adobe´s solutions such as InDesign, others have come up with practical solutions which vary from complete multi channel publishing systems by WoodWing to solutions by Twixl Media.
Twixl´s Publisher 5 is quite a popular app. Twixl has now integrated this with TruAuthor´s MEI and offers native HTML authoring. This makes it the ideal solution for any digital platform. The magic word is HTML, the web language.
Register for a Twixl webinar about this product on 30 August, via this link.
Interested in knowing more about WoodWing´s multi channel publishing solutions, visit the WoodWing Xperience on 11 and 12 October in Amsterdam. Register via this link.
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Nu digitaal publiceren voor de meeste opdrachten hand in hand gaat met print publishing, en social media publishing een grote vlucht neemt zoeken veel bedrijven naar een app die dat allemaal kan.
Die app moet niet alleen een zo geautomatiseerd mogelijke digitale workflow content omzetten naar verschillende beeldschermformaten, resoluties en operating systemen, maar ook de redactionele en publishing workflow regelen.
Dat is geen eenvoudige zoektocht gezien de complexiteit van de materie, het kostenaspect, de koppeling met bestaande systemen en het gebruik van bestaande data.
Adobe is één van de weinige bedrijven die voor al deze problemen een oplossing heeft, maar dat zijn wel kostbare oplossingen met steile leercurves.
Op basis van Adobe pakketten, zoals InDesign, heeft een aantal bedrijven praktische oplossingen bedacht die variëren van complete multi channel publishing systemen van WoodWing tot oplossingen van Twixl Media.
Van dat laatste bedrijf is Twixl Publisher 5 een goed verkochte app. Nu bundelde Twixl zijn oplossing met TruAuthor van MEI en biedt daarmee native HTML authoring. Daarmee is het mogelijk om voor elk digitaal platform de ideale oplossing te bieden. Het toverwoord hier is HTML, de taal die door het web gebruikt wordt.
Wil je weten hoe dat werkt, schrijf je dan in voor de webinar op 30 augustus via deze link.
Wil je weten hoe WoodWing multi channel publishing aanpakt bezoek dan de WoodWing Xperience op 11 en 12 oktober in Amsterdam, inschrijven kan via deze link.
Lees verder....
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