The state of green printing - talks with green printers: Marilyn Jones of Consolidated Printing

Today we bring you another chapter in what we aim to make a monthly series - State of the green printing - talks with green printers. This series is part of our efforts to promote green printing and to get a better understanding where it stands and how it develops.

Last month we had the pleasure to talk with Livio Ciciotti of Monroe Litho (full list of interviews can be found on our green printing page), and today we are happy to have a special guest from Chicago, who is engaged in green printing for over three decades - Marilyn Jones of Consolidated Printing (Chicago, IL).

Consolidated Printing Company was established by Marilyn Jones in the basement of her Chicago home in 1973 with just $5,000. After more then 35 years Consolidated Printing is one of the leaders in the green printing market and an awarded printer. Marilyn is talking on the interview on the journey she made since the beginning at her home basement in 1973, the current trends and developments in green printing and the future of Consolidate Printing.

Hi Marilyn. Can you tell us what makes Consolidated Printing a green printer?

Consolidated has taken a holistic approach to sustainability, and has addressed everything involved in the process of printing and the facility that houses the plant and offices. Specifically, in the printing process we have zero petroleum, zero carcinogens, zero phthalates. Along with our printing processes being natural our office and plant has been built out with sustainable products and procedures. All of the processes at Consolidated Printing are non-toxic.

What motivated you in the first place to adopt green practices and offer green options to your customers?

Printing is a marvelous business and gives us the opportunity to work with people in many different businesses. One of my first clients was a vitamin manufacturer. He sold mega doses of vitamins to health care practitioners. In 1973 in the Midwest we were not as a society familiar with the benefits of vitamins as a source of healing. Learning from him about the many everyday items that affect your health positively and negatively made me look at the chemicals I was using in my business life.

As I adopted alternative medicine and a natural lifestyle personally the extension went to my business where I adopted the use of many household products to replace toxic chemicals.

Although there were clients I discussed natural healing and natural printing with, I did not do this on a large scale until I participated in our states Great Printers Project. We were inspected and awarded as Illinois First Great Printer in 1997. I found that clients I worked with wanted this award listed on the printing I was doing for them. Printed by Illinois First Great Printer”

What do you consider the most important green element in your green identity?

The most important green element in our green identity is transparency. If I am struggling with some aspect of my mission, I talk about it. We recently replaced a press with the newest model. This new generation press did not take to our natural wash up solution; it could not be weaned from its toxic habit. I would point it out on tours for clients and talk about our processes to find a solution. We did after many months adapt it to our all natural production method. Until we reach transparency we will not become a “green” industry.

As someone who is involved in green printing for many years, what’s the most important changes you see now in the industry?

The industry has changed and embraced the green movement. We have embraced recycled paper and soy ink and a multitude of bogus certifications but, I see only a handful of us across the nation pushing to delve deeper and clean up the industry. Unfortunately, through lack of awareness or lack of dedication I do not see the industry moving to be rid of the toxic and health damaging chemicals.

Every day I read the ads from printers who talk about citrus wash as a green alternative; do they know it has the potential to cause cancer? How is that green? Or a printer who is talking about a waterless press as an answer but not talking about the toxic wash up needed to remove the ink from the press or the plates that are not recyclable. Half truths and misleading. Chemicals can cause liver and kidney problems, cancer, coma, sudden death just to name a few.

What are the most popular green offers now at Consolidated Printing? Is there any particular reason for that?

The most popular green offer at Consolidated is our all natural printing process with the use of no toxic chemicals in our printing process. Our clients tell us our ink is vibrant, the colors deep and rich. We have recently won awards for print excellence from the Printing Industry of Illinois and Indiana, American Printer Magazine and a Gold Ink Award.

What is the most important part for your customers when it comes to buying green printing services?

The most important part for our clients when it comes to buying green printing services is the length of our participation in the greening of printing and the inspections and awards our company has participated in and received.

William D. Schaeffer Environmental Award
The Governor's Pollution Prevention Awards
Mayor Daley's Green Practices Market Transformation Award
Mayor Daley's Green Products Market Transformation Award
First Illinois Great Printer

Do you think we are already in the place where green printing is not only supporting the environment but also generating value for businesses?

No, I do not think we are in the place where green printing is supporting the environment or generating value for business. I don’t feel buying wind power is the answer to the energy debate. Supporting renewable energy is great but how can we do it more directly? Is that money really ADDING to the amount of renewable energy used or just subsidizing it? We need to be cutting down our energy use and demanding energy-saving features from our suppliers. As for the pollution printing generates, the technology is there to support the environment but it is not being used by the industry as a whole so printing remains a leading polluter worldwide.

Who is the typical customer that buys green printing services from you?

There is no typical customer who is buying green. All clients are looking for the three original qualifications -price, quality, on time delivery - with the added benefit of being green. Not necessarily in that order. For each client the priority changes but those four requirements remain pretty steady.

How does the recession influence green printing? Is cost becoming more of an issue?

The recession has influenced printing as in every other industry. Cost is an issue. Our system in areas is much more expensive. Our biggest expense is in the past. It was in the research and development, the hours, weeks and months, years put into testing new products and the cost of wasted paper and in overtime hours, products that did not live up to their claims, or new generations of products that were improved and again needed testing.

As a company our employees spend a considerable amount of time working on greening the printing industry and working in the green community. The working hours we all spend on this community involvement to further the green initiative is another area that increases our costs. Time is money.

What is your vision of Consolidated Printing 5 years from now?

My vision for Consolidated 5 years from now……hmmm I didn’t have this vision 5 years ago. I would like to see our Printedgreen^TM become the standard for the industry. Meanwhile, we will just keep doing what is right for our workers and the planet. We will continue to partner with our industry to make it a safer place to work and live and make the air we breathe and the water we drink safer.

Thank you Marilyn! You can learn more about Consolidated Printing at their website - www.consolidatedprinting.net

You are also invited to watch this video, which shows an interview conducted with Marilyn last year:

More links:

The State of Green Printing - Part 1 - an interview with Greg Barber of Greg Barber Company (January 15, 2009)

The State of Green Printing - Part 2 - an interview with Deb Bruner of Pinnacle Press (March 18, 2009)

The State of Green Printing - Part 3 - an interview with Livio Ciciotti of Monroe Litho (July 20, 2009)

Green printing tools and resources - http://www.ecolibris.net/greenprinting.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris. net

"Menu Dating: Taste- Test your Way to the Main Course" is going green with Eco-Libris!

We're happy to announce on a new collaboration with a great new book -"Menu Dating: Taste- Test your Way to the Main Course", which was released yesterday!

Eco-Libris is working with the authors, Tristan Coopersmith and Todd Johnson, to plant 1250 trees for the copies printed to replenish Mother Earth, replacing the resources used for printing the book. Our logo will appear on the copies printed as well, showing readers the commitment of the authors to improving their impact on the environment.

This is a great book and we're very proud to work with its authors. No matter if your dating days are over (for now..) or you're waiting for them to be over, you'll enjoy this fun and valuable book.

Here are some more details about what you can find in it and the authors.

About the book: Order up…a delicious new dating attitude! Whether you’re convinced all the good guys are taken, sick of kissing frogs, or simply feeling cursed by Cupid, Tristan and Todd, irrepressible best friends and dating aficionados, will teach you how to rock a stellar new outlook on hooking up, dating and finding your “main course,” while filling your calendar (and plate) with loads of tantalizing men.Menu Dating includes innovative new strategies for:

*Cleansing your palette by throwing out your stale dating philosophies and flirting phobias

*Adopting the laidback, positive attitude of someone who knows there’s no such thing as a bad date— just a veritable tapas bar of flavorful experiences and lessons.

*Collecting and taste testing tons of different man candidates (mandidates!)…even the ones you thought you’d never date

*Sexcapading, booty calling and practicing the art of the one-night stand (and yes, every girl should have at least one)

*Avoiding the pitfalls and pratfalls of dating multiple men at the same time

Menu Dating will show you how dating a rotating roster of different men without a fixation on settling down is actually the secret to finding the relationship you deserve. You’ll discern your wants from your needs, your nice-to-haves from your dealbreakers...not to mention, have some seriously delicious fun along the way to meeting your “main course” man.

About the authors: TRISTAN COOPERSMITH and TODD JOHNSON have been best friends since they were eight. As roommates in their 20s, they became each other's dating coaches and interpreters of the puzzling behavior of the opposite sex. Tristan is a trend forecaster in Los Angeles.

Having taste-tested all the way to her main course, Tristan is a happily retired graduate of the MENu Dating program and a newlywed. Todd works in finance in New York, married the woman of his dreams and is the proud father of a baby boy. He continues to be Tristan's "boy's eye view" for all things man-related.

You can order a copy of "Menu Dating" on Amazon, B&N and other bookstores online and offline. Full list can be found at http://www.menudatingonline.com/shop

You're also welcome to visit the Menu Dating's website and connect with the authors on Facebbok and Twitter.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

Green printing tip #11: What are your green options when it comes to promotional items?

We're happy to bring you today another tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Today Greg is talking about a part of your business that you can easily green up and benefit both your business and your customers.

What are your green options when it comes to promotional items?

Tip #11

Whether you have a trade show coming or you start thinking about the gifts you want to give your customers this year for the holidays, you might want to consider some eco-friendly options. They're creative, fun, show your customers the environment is important to you and as you'll see it can fit even a very tight budget ,and clients today are searching more than ever for green items.


Here are a couple of examples:

Eco Circles: 3" or 3.375" diameter, coaster looking , NETWORKING CARDS. Hand these out at networking parties, or trade shows, and the response is 10 times greater than traditional business cards. The next day, your circle card stands out from the 50 rectangle business cards.

We offer these at 6 up, on each print run.You can have 1 name or 6 names, or 3 names at 2 up, etc. We offer our entire Tree Free, and 100% PCW covers to you. We can quote 1 color up to 4 color for 1 side or both sides.

The Eco Circles are my most popular item bought as a promotional item. They create the most awareness and they are inexpensive, compared to flyers and brochures.

Calenders: Printed on 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper. Many sizes available.

Corn Starch Bracelets: We have bracelets that are made from Corn Starch and there are 3 bracelets to a set. You wear all 3 bracelets. The charm is engraved-Go Green. For 1000 sets, you can have your own company initials engraved. This is an inexpensive gift to give @ $3.75 per set.
The corn starch bracelets, with the Go Green charm are my most popular gift.

Bookmarks: The standard size is 2 x 8 inches, printed on 100% recycled cover. 4 color/2 sides.

Environments Books: "WHO I AM", an interactive coloring book and "HOW THE LAND OF LITTER BECAME THE KINGDOM OF CLEAN", an educational, kids book are fun promotional items. We reserved the inside covers for your company misson statement or ad. These items are sold for under $5.00 each without the ads on the inside covers.

As you can see, price wise, the Eco Circles, coloring books and bracelets are all under $5 when you buy 100 at a time. If you buy over 1000 of them, the price is low.

If you would like to receive quotes on any of these items, please email greg@ecofriendlyprinter.com.

And if you have any further questions following our tips, or you have a specific question you want us to address, please email us to info@ecolibris.net .

Links to the last three green printing tips:

Green Printing Tip #10 - Are you buying environmentally sound business cards?

Green Printing Tip #9 - What to look for when selecting a green printing vendor?

Green Printing Tip #8 - Does it cost more to print my book on recycled paper?

You can find links to all the tips we published so far on our green printing tips page, which is part of our green printing tools & resources.

You can also find further valuable information on Greg Barber Company's website - http://www.ecofriendlyprinter.com.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing

Green book review (and giveaway!): The Complete Idiot's Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Home

Our weekly green book review has moved this week to Tuesday because of technical problems yesterday. Still, it was worth waiting because we have a great book dealing with one of the hottest issues on the green agenda - renewable energy for homes.

Our book today is:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Home

Author: Harvey Bryan and Brita Belli

Harvey Bryan has been involved in sustainability and renewable design concerns for some 30 years. He has previously taught at MIT and Harvard and is currently a full professor at Arizona State University. He was on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and is certified in both BREEAM (a rating system used in Europe and Canada), as well as LEED. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors on the Green Building Initiative.

Brita Belli is the editor of E / The Environmental Magazine, the largest independent magazine dedicated to green issues.

Publisher: Alpha (a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)

Published on: July 2009

What this book is about? (from the publisher's website)
An essential how-to on powering your home with sun, wind, water, and more.
For readers wanting to save money—and the planet—by using alternative energy, this book provides everything they need to know. The five basic sources are fully covered: sun, wind, water, earth, and bio.

The benefits, what is needed, and whether it will work for a particular home are all carefully laid out in this comprehensive overview:
• Solar energy for home heating, water heating, and electricity
• Wind power, hydrogen, and micro hydro power
• Heat pumps—air, geothermal, and water source
• Heating with wood and going bio

What we think about it?
Everyone knows renewable energy is good in general and for your home specifically and that it's good for the environment and for your wallet. But what's next? what do you do if you actually decided to move forward and green up your existing or new home with renewable energy devices? That's where this book becomes handy.

There's so much information available about solar, wind, hydropower and other alternative energy sources that you can very easily find yourself more confused and less confident in what you actually need to do. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Renewable Energy for Your Home" is trying to make some order in this flood of information and to provide you a guidance that covers all the relevant aspects of choosing and using renewable energy systems at home.

And it does a pretty good job. It gives clear explanations on the options, the benefits, compare between options and even helps you to understand ratings of systems such as solar water heating systems.

The book includes updated information on one of the important issues involved in purchasing a renewable energy system - the benefits you can - tax credits, rebates, etc. There's also information divided to areas as the benefits in Florida are not similar to the ones in the Midwest.

Another important chapter I was glad to see in this book is "Size Matters" that reminds us that one of the sources of the energy problem we have is not only the current sources of energy but the size of the houses, which increased in 140% in the last 4 decades (2,349 square feet in average in the US - 2004 figures).

Bottom line: If you're thinking about getting a renewable energy system for your home, get this book! It may be a little too heavy for the beach but if you find a cool spot take it with you.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

We're giving away our review copy of the book, courtesy of the book's publicist, and of course a tree will be planted for the copy!

How you can win? Please add a comment below with an answer the following question: What renewable energy system you would like to have at home? Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, August 25, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on Eco-Libris website's green resources section.

More relevant links:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Building and Remodeling

Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

A new report is saying printing continues to go green, but do its findings support this claim?

New report has been released with an interesting title - Printing Continues to Go Green. But looking at some of the report's findings makes you wonder if this is really so.

This 68-page report, according to the publisher WhatTheyThink, "provides an overview of the state of green printing initiatives in the U.S. commercial printing industry. The report, an update to a special primer report first published in April 2008, provides the results of a June 2009 survey of commercial printing establishments conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center".

So far so good, but let's look at couple of the findings the publisher highlights on its website:

— in a June 2009 survey conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, the top green practice that U.S. commercial printers say they have currently implemented is “identify itself in marketing and sales materials and promotions as an environmentally sensitive business,” cited by 33% of all respondents, up from the 26% who said this in a March 2008 survey;

— 43% of all responding companies said that sustainable printing initiatives are “critically important to only a select few customers,” up from 41% in March 2008;

— 26% of all respondents say they plan to implement some form of certification from an environmentally sustainable printing authority, up from 20% in April 2008;

Now, I have to say first I didn't read the report and I only refer to the information available on the publisher's website, but if these findings are in anyway indication of the other findings of the report then I'm not sure how one can see here any move of the printing industry in the direction of sustainability.

Actually, all three findings are showing the opposite. The first finding shows that most common green practice is to identify to yourself as one in marketing materials. This sounds a little troubling - wouldn't you expect it to be greater usage of FSC or recycled paper?

The second finding shows that more printers say that green printing is important only to a few customers. This is not encouraging as well.

And the last finding here show that more printers plan to implement some kind of "green" certification - but how many actually do it and not just plan to do so? I think the number of printers who already have these certifications can be a better indicator of the state of green printing.

So I'm not sure if these kind of findings justify the title of the report. I only hope the report itself include much more supporting material. In any case, it doesn't mean we don't think the printing industry is going green - we see this trend in the interviews we conduct with printers, conversations with businesses, feedbacks to our green printing tips series and news we read about almost every week.

If you have any feedback please feel free to add your comment. We'll be happy to hear your thoughts!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

Can you trust the world's largest library? On Google and the privacy of your reading habits

NPR's Morning Edition had this interesting story about the fight over readers privacy in the upcoming world's largest (virtual) library - Google's library.

Google has been working for a while on scanning millions of library books and putting them online. And they are expected to have a lot of information on users' reading habits, just like the information they already know now about your Internet activity.

"They know which books you search for," says Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) to NPR. "They know which books you browse through; they know how long you spend on each page."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, think books should be different and our reading habits should be much more protected than what Google is currently offering. EEF also started a campaign ('Don't Let Google Close the Book on Reader Privacy') calling Google to "build in privacy protections to its Google Book Search, and ensure that reading in the future is as safe and private in the digital world as it is in the analog."

And their timing couldn't be better actually because as NPR reports many of those scanned books are not yet readable, because of a copyright lawsuit filed by authors and publishers, which has been tentatively settled, but is waiting for a judge approval of the deal (expected this fall) to make millions more books will be available to browse through and read. EEF and and the ACLU of Northern California know they have the best leverage now as long as the settlement is currently under court review and want to take a full advantage of it.

What do you think? it's true we already know from the experience with Amazon's Kindle that reading will never be the same in the virtual world and that a lot of information about our reading preferences will be exposed in the minute we're entering this world. But it seems that with Google's library it would be much more extensive.

Do you think it's acceptable? can We trust Google or like the campaign is requesting, Google should pledge never to turn over readers' information unless presented with a warrant? I'll be happy to hear your thoughts here!

You can read NPR's story at http://alturl.com/4ehp

EEF's call for action can be found at http://alturl.com/xk8m

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading!

Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!

And how can anyone say No to such a funny ad?



This ad is part of a new campaign created by Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica, using humor to persuade people to reduce flushes.

SOS Mata Atlantica is a Brazilian non-profit private organization, with no political or religious affiliations, which works for the protection of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlantica), one of the richest sets of ecosystems in terms of biodiversity, and also considered one of the most threatened with extinction on the planet.

The group says if a household avoids one flush a day, it can save up to 4,380 liters (1,157 gallons) of water annually. SOS spokeswoman Adriana Kfouri told AP that the ad is "a way to be playful about a serious subject."

This is definitely a great ad and I'm only wondering how much it can help the Mata Atlantica, but I guess any step, no matter how small it is, can be helpful!

The organization website in English - http://www.sosma.org.br/english.html

The campaign's website - http://www.xixinobanho.org.br/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green reading!