Offset Printing
Heidelberg Customers Are Pioneers in Climate-Neutral Printing
Thursday 06. March 2008 - Over 20 print shops already in the business Symposium on calculating CO2 emissions in the spring
Climate-neutral printing is a growth market. More than 20 customers of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) offer climate-neutral print products to their customers. The largest partner company is ClimatePartner which advices the print shops and offsets the greenhouse gas emissions through climate protection measures. The joint customers include Pinsker Druck und Medien, which is based in the German cities of Mainburg and Munich and last year became one of the first print shops in Germany to add climate-neutral print products to its commercial printing portfolio. Other partners include Carbon Trust Enterprises ltd. in London and Stiftung Myclimate in Zurich.
A recent study commissioned by Heidelberg shows that 40 percent of all print shops regard environmental protection as a key issue. “Our customers set great store by environmental protection,” confirms Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Director for Engineering and Manufacturing at Heidelberg. “We can show that protecting the environment and earning money are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the investments required to secure a better future for our planet pay for themselves very quickly.”
Calculating and offsetting the CO2 emissions associated with printing processes
The huge increase in emissions of environmentally harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and methane is seen as a key cause of climate change. CO2 emissions are produced when fossil fuels are burned to generate power, and are also a byproduct of transport and an indirect result of the manufacturing and processing of raw materials. Printing is another indirect cause of environmentally harmful emissions – the result of paper manufacturing processes, transportation of raw materials to the print shop, and energy consumed by presses.
The principle behind climate-neutral printing is to calculate what these CO2 emissions amount to and offset them by, for example, planting trees or implementing energy-saving projects in developing countries. A certification body will carry out an audit to establish the amount of emissions associated with print shop processes – usually using its own databases – and put together proposals for how these can be offset.
Heidelberg organizes symposium on calculating CO2 emissions
In spring this year, Heidelberg is hosting a first symposium on climate-neutral printing. This event will feature a tool for calculating CO2 emissions from the printing processes. The aim of this move is to show print shops how they can achieve climate-neutral printing. Heidelberg also supports its customers with environmental know-how and its own environmental data on the printing process.
Heidelberg drives “eco printing”
Environmental protection has been an integral part of Heidelberg company policy since 1992. In 1996, the foundry in Amstetten was the very first site operated by a press manufacturer to be granted an eco-certificate. Environmental management systems to ISO 14001 are now in place at all sheetfed offset locations. Besides its own production, the company focuses on developing innovative, environmentally friendly presses. For example, the new Speedmaster XL 105 has increased productivity by 30 percent with the same, and in some cases even less, energy consumption. Key components of the Star System also reduce the environmental impact of the printing process. The PowderStar AP 500 ensures lower powder application and dust levels, the AirStar air supply system reduces energy consumption by 30-50 percent, and the new DryStar dryers achieve greatly enhanced performance with the same energy consumption.
A Prinect software package can help cut paper waste by around 400 sheets for each job. Paper consumption is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions.
ClimatePartner
ClimatePartner GmbH & CoKG, based in Munich, develops end-to-end strategies and integrated solutions associated with voluntary climate protection. The company’s highly skilled support ensures that businesses and products can achieve a sustainable position as regards one of the most crucial issues of our time.
By focusing on voluntary climate protection and a fully integrated approach based on the overall aims and visions of a company, ClimatePartner is the ideal partner for companies and institutions from a whole range of market segments. So far, over 30 print shops in Europe and the U.S. are customers of ClimatePartner.