Is the UK large-format print sector lagging behind when it comes to environmental responsibility? Market data suggests that’s the case as Walter Hale explains.
The average concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s
atmosphere topped 410 parts per million in April 2018.
Measurements from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory
show that the CO2 level is now higher than at anytime
in the past 800,000 years. For the record, homo sapiens
have lived on this planet for 200,000 years.
You don’t need to be a climatologist to instinctively feel
that is not good news. Tech futurist Michael K. Spencer
explains just how grim the rise in CO2 could become: “The
last time this occurred was likely in the Pliocene era, 2
million – 4.6 million years ago, when sea levels were 60 – 80
feet higher than they are today. It could also have occurred
in the Miocene era, 10 million – 14 million years ago, when
seas were 100 feet higher than now.” No wonder Spencer
concludes: “As humans, we are pioneers, we’re also
destroyers. The destroyer of worlds? We’ll find out one day –
if we’re not extinct before that happens.”
This is the kind of doomsday scenario that brought the
environmental issue to the fore a decade ago and prompted
businesses as diverse as Unilever, McDonalds, Marks &
Spencer and Pepsi to publish ambitious plans to reduce
their carbon footprint. Public concern has waxed and waned
since, in part, because our brains cannot easily compute
what climatologists are telling us. Only when the threat
becomes specific and vivid – as it did with the revelation that
plastic waste has been found in the Mariana trench, the
deepest part of the oceans – is public interest reignited.
The inconsistency in attitude is reflected in two recent
surveys: the Image Reports Widthwise Report (which
accompanies this issue) and Fespa’s latest Print Census.
Seven out of ten British print service providers told
Widthwise that clients had never asked them about their
environmental accreditation – although 39.1% said they
had some. The picture is muddied further because 45.0%
of respondents said offering greener print options is more
important now than it was two years ago.
Those findings suggest that many British print buyers –
and by extension their print suppliers – are not that worried
about the environment. This is exactly the opposite of
what Fespa found with its global Print Census. Collecting
data from 102 countries, the census revealed that 76% of
print service providers said customer specifications on the
sustainability of manufacturing and materials was shaping their business strategy, with more than one in five saying it is
was a major influence.
Prompted by customer demand, just under one in three
have invested in energy-efficient or environmentally certified
equipment, while others have trained staff on sustainability,
switched to VOC-free inks and recyclable media or instituted
end-to-life recycling programmes.
So is the UK lagging behind the rest of the world? Distracted
by withdrawal from the European Union was widely expected
to lead to a loosening – or abolition – of many environmental
regulations. Yet as the day of departure nears, that – like
almost everything else about Brexit – looks far from certain.
PSPs that work for publicly quoted – or multinational –
businesses may well find that not much changes. These
clients are acutely aware of the damage to their reputation an
environmental scandal can cause – which is one reason so
many of them pledged to reduce plastic waste so swiftly after
the recent newspaper headlines.
If anything, sustainability is becoming more of a priority
for big consumer-facing companies partly out of enlightened
self-interest but also because they know it is expected
by Millennials, who already account for £2trillion in global
consumer spending. In a recent survey, 87% of US Millennials
said they would be more loyal to a company that helped them
contribute to social and environmental issues.
This is a powerful argument for the wide-format sector,
as a consumer of plastic-based media, to think much more
ambitiously – and strategically – about its carbon footprint. New
substrates, new consumables, new renewable sources of
energy, new ways of providing end-to-life recycling – in the not
too distant future, these will all be just table stakes for PSPs
who want to work with large companies.
Let’s face facts, the wide-format sector does not want to get
on the wrong side of Sir David Attenborough, whose recent TV
series ‘The Blue Planet II’ exposed the damage plastic waste
is doing to our oceans. That is one PR battle the industry could
never win.
