Heidelberg Honors Winners of the ECO Printing Award
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Award for the most sustainable print shop goes to Hemlock
Printers Ltd. in Canada
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Award for the most innovative stand-alone solution presented
to Yoshida Printing in Japan
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Both solutions show how environmental protection, economic
success and social responsibility can go hand in hand
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New Heidelberg website dedicated to ecological issues
Coinciding with the start of spring, the winners of the Heidelberg
ECO Printing Award were honored at a small ceremony at the Print
Media Academy in Heidelberg. Dick Kouwenhoven, owner of Hemlock
Printers, Canada, was presented with the environmental award for
the most sustainable print shop, which comes with a prize fund of
30,000 Euro. Kazuhisa Yoshida, owner of Yoshida Printing in Japan,
accepted the award for most innovative stand-alone solution and a
check for 20,000 Euro. A five-member panel of international judges
selected the two winners from 52 applicants. Together with judge
Dr. Achim Schorb from the Heidelberg Institute for Energy and
Environmental Research (IFEU), Heidelberg board members Dr.
Jürgen Rautert and Stephan Plenz handed over the two ECO
Printing Award sculptures along with the certificates and prize
checks.
Most sustainable print shop - Hemlock Printers, Canada
As spokesperson for the panel, Dr. Achim Schorb explained
in his award speech why they chose Hemlock Printers as the winner
of the ECO Printing Award. Hemlock Printers Ltd. in Burnarby BC,
Canada, was chosen as a sustainable company in the area of sheetfed
printing. It was back in the 1970s that the company formulated its
first environmental policy, adopted environmental guidelines and
set ambitious environmental targets, and it continues to monitor
and expand these guiding principles today. The company fosters a
comprehensive social commitment and endeavors to get all its 240
employees involved. It has also set up a working group that is
dedicated to sustainability issues. This integral approach
incorporates the entire printing process, administration, building
management, transport logistics for goods and employees, paper and
material selection, ongoing training and education, and disposal.
The company also supports social commitment, environmental groups
and ecological initiatives. One such group has been established,
for example, with the aim of verifying that sustainability criteria
are met when sourcing pulp. Hemlock has developed its own paper
policy, which encourages customers to opt for recycled paper or
paper with the FSC seal. The company passes on its expertise in
environmental protection and sustainability by holding lectures and
seminars across America.
For more information, please vistit:
www.hemlock.com
Most innovative stand-alone solution - Yoshida Printing, Japan
The panel unanimously voted Yoshida Printing from Nigata,
Japan, as the winner of the most innovative stand-alone solution.
The company's "fresh print" concept, which facilitates
production in smaller batches and speeds up print processing, has a
positive impact on the environment and is seen as an impressive
solution that can be applied to the entire print industry. This
solution harmonizes the demands of industrial production with the
increasing requirements for environmental protection, energy
efficiency and waste avoidance. "Fresh print" generates
added value for customers through demand-based printing. For
example, annual framework agreements are drawn up for company
catalogs detailing the number of copies and overall price. The
catalogs are only printed when the customer orders the requisite
number of copies. This enables changes to products and prices to be
updated at short notice and included in the next print batch with,
at most, a minimum additional workload. This minimizes the paper
waste caused by obsolete catalogs or copies that have become soiled
through storage. The print shop benefits from satisfied and,
therefore, loyal customers, while the environment profits from the
reduction in paper consumption and waste paper.
In addition to its "fresh print" concept, Yoshida
Printing has also been able to switch from three to two-shift
operation without reducing the product output thanks to its
rationalization strategies, changes to the way the work is
organized, and technical innovations. These developments eliminate
the need for employees to work nightshifts and are proven to cut
energy consumption by 16 percent, thus making an important
contribution to environmental protection. Yoshida has a workforce
of 67. In cooperation with an ink manufacturer, Yoshida has also
optimized ink drying speeds, thus cutting down on waste and
shortening makeready times.
For more information, please visit:
www.ddc.co.jp
ECO Printing Award honors solutions focused on environmental
protection, economic benefits and social responsibility
To encourage printing companies to make their solutions
for environmental protection available to a wider audience,
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) used drupa 2008 to
invite them to submit entries for the first international ECO
Printing Award for sustainable sheetfed offset printing. In total,
52 companies from Africa, Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand,
Japan, China, Singapore, and New Caledonia applied. An independent
panel of judges selected the two winners from these entries. The
judges were Anne-Marie De Noose from the European printing
association INTERGRAF in Brussels, Rainer Litty from the Panda
Fördergesellschaft für Umwelt mbH as the marketing
company of Umweltstiftung WWF Deutschland, Dr. Achim Schorb from
the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) in
Heidelberg, William D'Alessandro, Editor-in-Chief of the Crosslands
Bulletin on Business, Law, and the Environment in the U.S., and
Philip Lawrence, Managing Director of Eco Logical Strategies
in Australia. "I am impressed with the number of
participants and, above all, the high quality of the entries to the
ECO Printing Award," said Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Management
Board Member for Markets at Heidelberg. "This goes to show
that innovative print shops have developed from their ecological
niche market and are using their creative solutions to achieve
sustainable and economic success. We launched this award in order
to identify innovative solutions via our worldwide sales and
service network and to pass on this know-how to the market,"
continues Rautert. Stephan Plenz, Management Board Member for
Technology and responsible for environmental protection at
Heidelberg, is certain that, "Only a holistic approach can
help improve a company's environmental performance. That's why
we at Heidelberg don't just focus our environmental protection
concepts on the printing process, but also factor them into the
development and production of our machines." The company plans
to run the ECO Printing Award every two years.
New Heidelberg website dedicated to ecological issues
Ecological issues are playing an ever greater role in the
print industry. For a number of years, Heidelberg has been working
on solutions for the development, production and utilization of
presses that will limit the consumption of resources, reduce
emissions and cut wastage. The ambitious end-to-end concept that
Heidelberg has developed has been proven in practice. Since the
company made environmental protection a key business aim in 1992,
this issue has continued to gain in significance, proving time and
again that sustainability and economic success are not mutually
exclusive. It is for this reason that Heidelberg has set up a
dedicated area on its website, which provides a whole range of
information on the subject of ecology.
HEI ECO website:
www.heidelberg.com/eco
Shortlist for the ECO Printing Award
There was a shortlist of ten companies from where the judges'
selected the two winners. The following eight companies were also
on the shortlist:
Sustainable printing companies:
- Stark Druck GmbH & CoKG, Pforzheim, Deutschland,
www.stark-druck.de
- Druckerei Lokay, Reinheim, Deutschland,
www.lokay.de
- Gugler GmbH, Melk, Österreich,
www.gugler.at
- SandyAlexander Inc., Clifton NJ, USA,
www.sandyinc.com
- Shanghai Tobacco Package Printing Co., Ltd., China,
www.sh-tobacco.com.cn
Innovative stand-alone solution:
- Vögeli AG, Langnau, Schweiz,
www.voegeli.ch
- Black Rainbow, Wtree, Vic., Australien,
www.blackrainbow.com.au
- Red I, Auckland, Neuseeland,
www.red-i.co.nz
Image 1:
Heidelberg ECO Award for the most sustainable print shop.
Dick Kouwenhoven, President and CEO, Hemlock Printers, Canada
Image 2:
Heidelberg ECO Award for the most innovative stand-alone
solution. Kazuhisa Yoshida, Owner, Yoshida Printing, Japan.
Image 3:
(left to right) Heidelberg ECO Award. Dr. Jürgen
Rautert, Board Member Sales & Service, Marketing and Products,
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Dick Kouwenhoven, President and
CEO, Hemlock Printers, Canada, Stephan Plenz, Board Member Research
& Development, Manufacturing and Purchasing, Heidelberger
Druckmaschinen AG, Kazuhisa Yoshida, Owner, Yoshida Printing,
Japan, Dr. Achim Schorb, IFEU-Institute Heidelberg und Head of ECO
Award Jury.
Image 4:
HEI ECO Website
Any queries should be sent by e-mail (preferably) to:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Ingrid Amon-Tran
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 33 73
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 33 29
E-mail:
ingrid.amon-tran@heidelberg.com
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