What does Harry Potter have to do with green printing?

Before I tell you, I want to tell you about how we recently we established a relationship with a “green” eco-friendly printer. In technical terms, our new trade print supplier holds ISO14001 (environmental management) accreditation — the environmental standard.

In Australia, according to industry publications, there are 5,500 commercial printers. Only 14 of them have the ISO14001 accreditation.

Our new green printer is one of the 14. And they are the first (and currently only one) to have a carbon netural operation. The certification covers their entire operation — from raw material to finished product, waste disposal, recycling, packaging … areas that you’d probably not even dream about!

This demonstrates that true green-friendly printing extends beyond just choosing a recycled paper stock.

Actually, in terms of paper stocks, there are a range of factors that come into play, but one of the important “buzzwords” to keep in mind is “FSC” — which is the acronym for the Forest Stewardship Council. The FSC certifies the chain of custody of a paper product from the forest (raw material) through to the end user consumer paper product, and is an eco-friendly label.

The FSC was founded in 1993, and is endorsed and supported by environmental groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy. Presently 6,000 companies around the world participate in the FSC scheme. FSC operates through its network of National Initiatives in 45 countries. The latest country to join the initiative is China.

The FSC label is a benchmark for using sustainable paper in commercial printing.

Our chosen green printer is FSC certified, and buys FSC certified paper from FSC certified suppliers (paper merchants)… ensuring the Chain of Custody is maintained right through to the consumer.

Using this process allows end users/consumers to include the FSC logo/trademark (shown below) on their printed material — which allows the end user to publicly demonstrate their commitment to sustainable practices.

In terms of paper stocks, there are a number of relevant FSC labels.

• FSC 100% products come from forests certified as meeting the environmental and social standards of the FSC
• FSC Recycled products support re-use of forest resources and use only post-consumer reclaimed material (wood and wood fibre) in accordance with FSC standards
• FSC Mixed Source products, with wood from FSC certified well-managed forests, company controlled* sources and/or post-consumer reclaimed material. At least 70 per cent of the material must be FSC certified and recycled, although other variations are included in FSC Mixed Source labelling and will be labelled according to their breakdown.

*Company controlled sources means avoiding wood from forest areas where civil or traditional rights are violated or high conservation values are threatened, avoiding genetically modified trees and illegally harvested wood, and avoiding wood from natual forests.

Our printer has supplied us with a “green paper guide” to rate the stocks available from most commercial merchants, so we can evaluate in advance the most suitable stocks to use for a project.

Labelling and Accreditation

FSC isn’t the only environmentally friendly eco-label for printing. Other environmental accreditations inlcude the Bue Angel (a German certification in use since 1977 for products and services that have environmentally friendly aspects) and the Nordic Swan (a Nordic — Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark — ecolabel in use since 1989). There are also other ecolabelling programs — Japan (Eco Mark) and Taiwan (Green Mark) both have environmentally friendly labelling programs. There are other ecolabels in place as well, which cover many types of products, from food through to tourism and even buildings, and labels such as Energy Star ratings for home whitegood appliances.

Other sustainable forestry labels include the PEFC: Pan European Forestry Certificate and SFI, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. And as well as ISO14001, there is also EMAS accreditation — Eco Management Audit Scheme.

On top of that, there are printing papers which are labelled ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free — no chlorine gases are used in the bleaching process) and TCF — Totally Chlorine Free, with no chlorine gases or compounds used in the bleaching process.

As eco-friendly practices grow, so will the range of labelled and accredited products. Announcements are made regularly about stocks or companies that have received accreditation, so what may be the case today may be different tomorrow.

Green Printing Issues

One production issue relates to the performance of the stock. As with all printing, some stocks are better suited to projects than others. Some stocks don’t offer the fibre strength to meet the demands of what is being produced — I’ve seen some printed samples, for example, where the sheet wasn’t rigid enough to not “flop” and poorly present the finished result.

Other performance issues include factors such as the suitability of the surface for areas of heavy ink coverage or where good photographic imagery needs to be included. There are issues to watch out for, so it’s best to plan and talk to an expert in advance.

Price can also seem to be an issue. With only 14 certified Australian printers, you’d think they have the market cornered and can charge an “arm and a leg” for their product. Afterall, certification can cost upwards of $100,000.

However, we recently priced a newsletter project and found the pricing to be very competitive. Whilst the price didn’t match our best trade printer, it wasn’t that far off, and certainly came in better than a number of commercial printers who don’t offer any green-friendly benefits at all. Our printer is very keen to ensure us they are aware of the need to remain competitive, and that economics plays a big factor in how quickly accredited printers become part of mainstream printing.

So, the process and stocks are in place for eco-friendly sustainable green printing. And the economics make sense as much as the sustainability arguments.

Another issue is that certain printing processes, such as the use of metallic inks, remain non eco-friendly. So even choosing the right stock, and the right printer, but wanting something such as metallic inks, may mean your printing is not truly “green”. Something else to check in advance.

A Fast-Growing Demand

My prediction is that within 4 or 5 years, the growth in ISO14001 accredited printers, and the growth in demand for green-friendly printing, will be significant. Not only is business moving to colour printing for more printed communication projects, it will also start moving more to eco labels (and promoting that to its audience) and accredited suppliers. Carbon trading will also have an impact on the choices some businesses make for their printing.

Like virtually anything, what seems “pioneering” today will be mainstream within a decade. For example, look how technology such as the internet, and business use of websites, has changed between 1997 and 2007. It’s an enormous difference. The same goes for the environmental example of water tank usage in residential households. Drought factors and growing awareness has meant a big change in attitudes. And so it will be with eco-friendly green printing.

Early adapters will have the advantage of being able to claim their green commitment is stronger, as they were quick to see the benefits of green printing and introduce it into their own operations.

Still wondering about Harry Potter? Well, did you know that the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series was printed on FSC paper? According to the FSC, with a total of 22 million pounds, this is the largest purchase of FSC-certified paper in a single book printing to date.

If you want to enjoy this advantage yourself, and not just leave it to a wizard like Harry Potter, we can assist.

Here’s one thing to keep in mind when you’re devising your multi-step email campaigns.

Timezones.

One of the best ways to learn about effective and current techniques for marketing is to be on the lists of the top marketers! Sign up for their online email lists and even their offline lists if you can. Watch, learn and adapt for your own needs.

Best of all, it’s virtually a free marketing education.

One thing that I have noticed from a couple of recent campaigns is how timezones can affect the impact of your message.

Case in point: just today I’ve had a product offer close with a time-specific deadline — 5pm Eastern Standard Time in the USA.

(That’s a great “urgency” tactic — cutting off an offer at a very specific time, and sticking to your plan, not leaving the offer open!).

But… at 5pm EST it is 7am AEST in Australia — Australian Eastern Standard Time. Speaking for myself, that’s not generally a time of day that I’m online.

So… in this email campaign, there were two “last minute” email reminders… one sent out 8 hours before the deadline, and another 4 hours (”240 minutes”) before the deadline.

For me, the emails arrived at 11:32pm and 3:12am. Both arrived well after I was in bed asleep (around 10:30pm). By the time I saw them, it was 8:25am this morning — nearly 90 minutes after the offer had closed!

In this case, the Australian and New Zealand time zones are probably at the worst point on the clock compared to US EST.

Now that’s not to say that these 2 emails were the only 2 messages I received: I also received a “Only 2 days left” reminder and also the launch email 5 days ago — this was only a 5-day offer.

That means, in this 4-step email sequence, I missed seeing half of the sequence at a suitable time to act on the info as I was tucked away in bed sleeping.

The important issue here is sending out your emails when the majority of your audience will be seeing them. For this case, the number of Australian and New Zealand readers would be far smaller than the number of US readers… although I’d guess there’s still enough of us to be a reasonable market.

Because of the quality and expertise of the marketer involved (copywriting expert Clayton Makepeace), I’m certain he would always be testing that kind of offer, and would actually reach the majority of his list at a suitable time.

How well do you know your list? Are you creating deadlines that make sense to the majority of your list members? What if you knew where your list members lived and could personalise the offer and closing time based on that information?

The only real way to find out would be to ASK them, as even email addresses don’t necessarily reflect where you live. For my mailing lists, I use a gmail.com address — so it doesn’t readily give away that I live in “.au”. And friends of mine in Melbourne use yahoo.co.uk free addresses — and they’re 10 hours ahead of London time.

So, if you want to get that information… a short online survey (and maybe an incentive)… and suddenly you might have more of your list seeing your offer at a time of day when they can respond!

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