Oct 16, 2007
Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow--Green Business is Good Business
By Sheryl Pattek of Oce North America's Commercial Printing Division
In 1962, when environmental activist Rachel Carson published her landmark book, "Silent Spring," she couldn't have dreamed that it would be another 45 years before her impassioned plea for environmental change would gain traction. While the movement to go green is finally reaching critical mass, the green revolution began many years ago. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development/The Bruntland Commission published "Our Common Future" for the United Nations, a report that outlined essential environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development.
The watershed moment came five years later in 1992, when former presidential candidate and environmentalist, Al Gore, published his book "Earth in the Balance" followed by the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." These works and others like them sounded a wake-up call--we ignore the dangers of climate change at our own risk. The growing sustainability movement took hold, igniting awareness of the importance of sustainability as a business practice. Today, businesses everywhere are seeking out products and processes that enable them to minimize environmental impact and support a sustainable future.
Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow...
Fleetwood Mac captured the essence of sustainability in its song, "Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow." Sustainability centers on the notion that we have a responsibility to future generations to reduce our carbon footprint today. While a universal definition of sustainability has yet to be established, the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) defines it as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."
Sustainability by nature is about the future. It is about business practices that balance the interests of people, the planet, and profitability. The good news? Awareness about sustainability is growing. Customers are challenging manufacturers to find better ways to protect and preserve resources. Environmentally conscious companies are initiating efforts to balance what is good for business with what is good for the planet. For many companies, sustainability has just recently become part of their corporate mission. For others, sustainability means finding ways to "green-wash" their products and their brand. And for a few, sustainability is simply a part of their DNA. This article provides guidelines to "sustainability" markers in both companies and products, helping you identify companies that are taking steps to develop sustainable products and practices, and make a difference.
Sustainability in a Company's DNA
While sustainability is about the future, one of the benchmarks of a sustainable company is its history. Look for a company that's taken steps toward sustainability for years. Look for a company that reduces the use of toxic materials, designs sustainability into new products, reduces, recycles, and re-uses materials, and has adopted sustainable processes for handling waste and emissions and transporting materials. Ask a prospective vendor to show you how it is incorporating sustainability issues into its business models and strategic planning cycles, and look for evidence that the company is continuing to refine its focus on a sustainable future.
Recycling ... Everything Old is New Again
When it comes to sustainability, recycling is often the first word that springs to mind. In terms of printer hardware, there are companies that recycle--and many that continue to send used machines to landfills. Why? Because their focus is selling equipment today--not on making sure they can sell it tomorrow. If you want to align your organization with a sustainable company, recycling is a must. Recycling is becoming an accepted part of daily and business life. Many households and businesses routinely recycle waste paper, aluminum cans, glass, and plastic bottles. This is an essential pillar of a wider strategy of sustainability--being able to maintain current standards of living and working while minimizing environmental impact.
Actions Speak Louder than Words
Of course, there's more to sustainability than recycling. Increasingly, it's a matter of how a company does business. When it comes to production printing and document management hardware, you want a company with a record of implementing sustainable business practices. For example, consider logistics--moving parts or equipment from Point A to Point B. Has the company adapted its processes to support a sustainable environmental program? Is it powering truck fleets with alternative fuels like biodiesel? Is it using carbon-neutral biomass fuels to power its production plants? Is it working to reduce emissions? Not every company will be able to answer yes to every question--the key is a pattern of eco-friendly business.
A Second Chance, a Second Life
Recovering parts and materials for re-use or recycling reduces consumption of new materials and parts, along with the waste inherent in the manufacturing process. If you're looking for a sustainable partner, find out if the vendor has a remanufacturing policy. Are products and component materials engineered to be re-used in new systems? How are machines handled at the end of their economic lives? Are components reclaimed, recycled, or remanufactured--or are they sent to a landfill? Do components stay in play--or are they discarded as waste? Case in point, Oce has emerged as a leader in re-use and recovery by organizing appropriate collection, transport and processing facilities for products that have reached the end of their useful lives. Many Oce products are given a second or third life in the company's Asset Recovery facilities and placed on the market again to minimize waste.
Energy efficiency rules
The use of energy is an important environmental indicator considering the greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning natural gas and other fuels. Sustainable companies use green or renewable energy sources for heating, cooling, and production, and/or are studying ways to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency. One way to determine if a product you are purchasing is energy-efficient is to look for the familiar ENERGY STAR emblem. ENERGY STAR is a US government-backed program created by the U.S. EPA to help businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Any product that bears the ENERGY STAR logo has met stringent guidelines for energy efficiency.
Waste handling and emissions
Waste handling comes in three basic flavors--hazardous chemicals, industrial waste such as paper, metals and packaging and domestic waste. Most industrial waste can be recycled, so look for a company that recycles and re-uses these components--and designs photoconductors and consumables to last longer to reduce waste. Meanwhile, reducing ozone, dust, and toner emissions should be a key initiative for any eco-responsible company.
Sustainability and the innovation pipeline
Say you've determined that a potential business partner has sustainable business practices, encourages recycling, and offers products that are energy efficient and minimize emissions. What about the future? Is the company taking steps to raise the sustainability bar for new products? Oce continues to take steps to design sustainability right into products. For example, the Oce VarioPrint 6000 family of digital duplex printers uses Oce Gemini Instant Duplex technology, which makes economic use of paper, toner, and energy. What's more, Oce VarioPrint 6000 systems have no toner waste bottle. Because the systems use 100 percent of toner, there's no waste and no resulting environmental impact.
The bellwether--compliance with regulations, initiatives and standards
Compliance with regulations and standards also play a role in many technology companies' strategies. Most notable is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), which became effective in Europe in July of 2006 and in California in January 2007. RoHS is part of a legislative initiative to solve the problem of large amounts of toxic electronics-related waste. RoHS places limits on the use of six hazardous materials (lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether [PBDE] flame retardants) in new electrical and electronic equipment.
The UN Global Compact encourages a precautionary approach to environmental challenges, initiatives that promote greater environmental responsibility and development of environmentally friendly technologies through research, innovation, and self-regulation. The ISO 14001 compliance indicates that a company has met one of the world's most respected standards for environmental responsibility. Compliance with any of these directives indicates a commitment to sound environmental practices.
Green business is good business
Environmental stewardship is more than a fad or public relations stint. As more customers demand business partners that can prove their sustainability, green business is becoming good business. As a result, it's becoming easier to partner with companies that are focused on environmental responsibility. For companies like Oce sustainability has been a defining philosophy and part of its DNA for years--as far back as 1958 when the company launched a new production process using a paper coating that reduced the use of solvents by 80 percent. The company has continued to expand its sustainability focus ever since, finding innovative ways to use and re-use components, optimize energy and water consumption and reduce waste and ozone, dust and toner emissions.
Sustainability continues to be an essential cornerstone of the company's approach to business, with the most recent example of sustainability as an integral part of design evident in the award-winning Oce VarioPrint 6000 series, designed to use paper, toner and energy more economically. The Oce VarioPrint 6250 is nearly twice as energy efficient as its nearest competitor, enabling customers to save thousands of dollars a year in energy costs. What's more, the system emits only a fraction of the ozone of comparable high-volume cut sheet devices and do not require a toner waste bottle as they use all available toner, eliminating waste and minimizing environmental impact. Innovations like these have enabled Oce to earn several awards and recognitions.
The company received Europe's first award for research in environmental protection in 1975. Its products have met the criteria of the UN Global Compact since 2002 and Oce is one of the first companies to be RoHS compliant. Last year Oce received FedEx Kinko's Best in Sustainability/Environmental performance award at their annual supplier summit. Many of the company's products have received Germany's Blue Angel Award, given to products that meet high standards for energy efficiency, emissions, and use of recycled paper and recyclable materials. As more companies learn to balance what's good for business with what's good for the environment and the preference in business relationships and government procurement shifts to companies that are green--a lot more businesses will see the advantages of taking the lead as environmental stewards and agents of change.