Green Certifications- Where will it end?

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Permalink Reply by Frank Miske III on August 7, 2008 at 8:41am

I am finding that people are interested in going green as long as it doesnt cost them any money.

CBF is really no different, we were Green Certified by the State of MN for many years as we helped them create the program... then once they had it all in place and wanted to charge us for the certification we dropped it (not the practices just paying for getting certified) We were Green before Green was cool back in 1984 we started looking for ways to reduce and reuse, went from 9 dumpsters a week to 2 present day otherewise everything else is put into another reuse, recycle stream.

This paractice costs money, but helps the enviroment, I am not paying somebody to tell me I am doing a good job, or the right thing. In fact for the new Chain of custody practices for paper it is really a joke if people really understood what and how it works, but the logo looks good on a sheet of paper.

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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Vermillion on August 7, 2008 at 9:41am

I see basically the same issues as Frank. As long as it doesn't cost any more, then the end user is willing to buy green. It seems that green issues and struggling economy go hand in hand and flare up any time gas prices climb. Everyone would love to reduce our dependancy on oil, would love to see a better environment, but when gas prices are so high and already cut into profits it's hard to justify to the stockholders that they should cut profits more just to buy recycled paper.

Does anyone know of any green solutions that are free out there? I know we can sell "wind power" manufactured envelopes (converted and printed with wind power). We don't charge extra for that, but we do pay extra for the electricity. Even our government clients don't buy recycled paper. Until there are some financial incentives to go green, I think the certifications and other green initiatives will be more for marketing purposes.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa Klug on August 7, 2008 at 5:25pm

Hi Cheryl--to answer your question about solutions that are green and free, my company Glatfelter (used to be Mead Carbonless) has a solution called NatureSolv that is the environmentally responsible carbonless capsule system--and it's on all of our carbonless products and at no upcharge. So if you are ordering forms from a manufacturer that uses our product, you can put our NatureSolv logo on it (we have stickers printed that you can put on invoices, job boxes, etc.) our website is www.naturesolvcapsule.com or you can email me for info at melissa.klug@glatfelter.com.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Edwards on August 17, 2008 at 1:21pm

FormStore has been active for many years with a number of recycling efforts for scrap paper, corrugated and plastics. We also recycle heat from our manufacturing equipment and use it to heat our production areas in the colder months.

Several people have expressed interest in FormStore's green "Win with Wind" wind power initiative. Our decision to move to wind power was based on the desire to move toward a reduction in carbon emissions. The "Win with Wind" program at FormStore reduces carbon emissions equal to removing 200 automobiles from the road for an entire year. Instead of manufacturing a few intermittent orders per month with SFI or FSC papers, every LaserWell membership ID card, DigiMagnet, affixed product, Digital Print and Direct Mail order that we produce is supported by our 100% wind power "Win with Wind program.

FormStore uses many SFI and FSC papers in its manufacturing process, however, we have not yet participated in these certification programs. The current systems is fraught with misinformation, confusion, redundancy and multiple layers of costs for audits and ongonig compliance which neither our distributor channel partners nor their customers are willing to accept.

Forest sustainability efforts have been underway for decades. In fact, almost all paper mills plant more trees every year than they harvest, so we actually have more trees today than we had 10 years ago. Recycled paper is being shipped by sea to China for de-inking and then returned to the US to make recycled paper. What is the positive eco-effect of that process?

Alternative fuel use like our FormStore "Win with Wind" program is an immediate, credible, measureable way to reduce carbon emissions.

For more information on renewable energy sources, we recommend a visit to www.3degreesinc.com one of the Department of Energy's top providers. Another excellent source of information is www.pickensplan.com. Boone Pickens discusses a specific plan on how we can all focus our efforts over the next 10 years to significantly reduce our dependence on imported oil and harness wind and solar power.

Paul Edwards
President
FormStore Incorporated
pedwards@formstore.com

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Goetz on September 25, 2008 at 11:51am

This is really a sore topic for me. My feeling on the green thing is it revolves more around greed then saving our planet. FSC certifications run around $3-5000 per year. Once FSC stocks were approved and foreign paper was pretty much banned US paper mills started increasing paper pricing instead of lowering it to match overseas pricing. I find American paper superior to imported paper but with the competitiveness and low bidding going on it is tough to make money in printing. We quoted a job with Cougar (FSC and 10%PC) and the same job using Environment by Neenah. The price was three times the cost and the customer went with cheap over environment.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Cupach on September 25, 2008 at 12:01pm

for those distributors in the OHio, Michigan, Indiana, western PA part of the country, Business Stationery, Dupli-Systems, Glatfelter, Printgraphics and Midwest Direct Mail are sponsoring a distributor only forum in Cleveland on October 15 from 9am to 3PM. Forum will be held at the Cleveland Rockside Road Holiday Inn and include lunch. Glatfelter will present info to attendees on the "Green" initiatives in the industry and we will discuss how distributors can use the Green movement to create opportunities. Additionally, there will be a presentation/roundtable on ecommerce programs and how to sell them to end users and a session about "hot" products for the 2008 promotional products holiday selling season. If you need additional info, call me at 800-234-9954 Ext. 1290.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Edwards on September 25, 2008 at 7:06pm

Ralph,
I have resisited FSC and SFI even though Cougar is one of our preferred house sheets.

We see "green" a bit differently:
1) we use judious recycling for plastics, paper and cartons
2) we use 100% wind power via RECs
3) we encourgae digital print on demand vs large offset print runs, ie. print what you need, when you need it and ship it where it will be used. This eliminates enormous waste, storage space, capital investment, insurance, handling etc.

Our Digital Connect information is attached

Paul

Attachments:

• FormStore Digital Connect-SE.doc, 70 KB

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Permalink Reply by Frank Miske III on April 24, 2009 at 2:59pm

well we have been looking into the print by demand and how green it really is? many things have been coming into play lately everything from Toner (plastic), to cartridges, to over all maitenace on the machine and the true carbon foot print being created, to the real costs of print on demand now that soft costs are being tracked by the companies that have purchased their own machines because it took to long to call a printer.

Being a good steward of this earth does not and should not take a certificate... I just did a quick run down of what CBF has done since 1969 and over the past 40 years we have done more with out being told because it made perfect sense and not always economic sense. changing lighting, heating, reusing items not what they were designed for creating new uses and conversions of existing machines instead of buying new one.

I will have more thoughts on this as time goes on I have 6 more presidential elections before I can retire, so we can only wonder what will be next.

give me a call if you are interested in keeping your carbon foot print smaller if needed.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Ruesch on April 28, 2009 at 10:39am

Recently a printer in Utah had to merge with another printer to keep from bankrupcy. That is not an unusual scenerio nowadays, but what does make it different is that this company a few years ago was marketing themselves with great fanfare as the first in the area to become FSB certified. I, like many in the industry, looked into the costs for certification. Outrageous. Prohibitively expensive for small shops. I'm not saying that their financial woes were tied to FSB, but it didn't help.

Who really benefits from certification? I'll give you a hint, it isn't the printers. Being certified doesn't mean you can charge more for your services. It is still dog-eat-dog out there. If you can afford the certification price tag and be competitively priced, more power to you. Frank Miske III and Cheryl Vermillion had it right, companies like to brag that they are going green, but they won't pay more for it.

There is no environmental shame to be borne by the printing industry. As the old Virginia Slims slogan said, "We've come a long way baby." We've been quietly turning green for a couple of generations. You may want to see my blog entry called "We Are Greener Than You Think" http://www.billprintbroker.com/?p=675.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Edwards on April 28, 2009 at 10:50am

Hi Bill,
Thank you for your comments to our discussion.

We began this and other discussions months ago including a discussion on examples of profit and positive ROI from the certification expense.

Just yesterday, I finally got ONE positive response. All of the rest have been neutral to extremely negative.

It appears that the SFI and FSC certification progarms need to be revised, reorganized and recycled to a more realistic approach. Without changes, they will simply be a passing fad.

Paul Edwards
CEO
www.formstore.com/digital.pdf
A Wind Powered Company

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