Sustainable printing 'requires input from the whole industry'

Each part of the supply chain needs to have an understanding of sustainable printing, it has been suggested.

For sustainable printing to succeed, each firm that makes up the industry's supply chain needs to gain an understanding of environmentally-friendly practices.

That is the view expressed by Peter Kohn in an article for ProPrint, which states sustainable printing processes can be confusing.

He suggested a "collaborative supply chain approach" is effective, citing a recent study into the carbon emissions of Trinity Mirror newspaper group, which found less than 20 per cent of the Daily Mirror's carbon footprint is made up of the company's own operations, while some 80 per cent is a result of other firms' processes.

Paper industry consultant Tim Woods added merchants respond to the demands of printers and clients, some of whom want their products to be as eco-friendly as possible, but the majority of customers are focused on quality and low cost.

It was recently suggested by Morag Cuddeford Jones in a piece for iStockAnalyst, however, that the printing industry is becoming increasingly aware of sustainable considerations.