Features

For every business and inhabitant of the planet the transition to a low-carbon and more sustainable society is becoming one of the single most important drivers of the first half of the 21st century.

Therefore, environmental issues will have an increasing impact on the graphics industry value chain for publishers, advertisers, packagers, printers, and their suppliers.

There is a direct correlation between CO2 fossil emissions, energy generation and consumption.

The industrial revolution was sustained by fossil fuels that drove carbon extraction and combustion, with its subsequent effect on the climate. Coal is still the emissions 'king' in terms of CO2 emissions even in the 21st century. Avoiding catastrophic climate change requires a massive reduction in GHGs from 1990 levels.

European carbon emissions continue to decrease and could over achieve the Kyoto target by 5.1% but if and only if all so called additional measures are implemented. A further positive point is that pulp, paper and printing is responsible for only 0.6% of total GHG emissions in Europe, and these have dropped by 3% from 1990 to 2008, while production has increased by around 12%. In 2008, the EC defined its 20/20/20 mandatory reduction targets by 2020 (20% reduction of GHGs / 20% increase in energy efficiency / 20% increase of renewable energy sources).

One of the key issues is how much would a massive reduction in GHGs levels cost? A recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that the most stringent mitigation target would reduce global growth by 0.12% per year to 2050; it could be less.

According to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Europe "The sustainability issue is now a priority across boundaries - political, cultural and professional. In a business context, sustainable development means taking a triple bottom-line approach so that the business measures its success not just on financial performance but on its environmental and social performance too".

Clean technologies themselves are already a big business with a global revenue in 2009 of $530 billion according to HSBC — this is about the size of the Swiss economy and bigger than the telecom services and media sectors

Why is energy policy important?
There are three realities concerning energy that impact on all users:
• Conventional energy supply is limited and many alternatives are expensive = need to reduce.
• The cheapest kWh of energy is the one not used = need to improved energy efficiency.
• Significant reduction of fossil fuelled energy = need to have cleaner generation.

The energy challenge is not just the massive reduction in GHGs in developed countries but also that world population is predicted to increase substantially, with many countries moving to more developed economies with an increasing demand for energy. Four trends that will shape the world's energy system this century are electrification, decarbonisation, localisation and optimisation.

An energy strategy that takes only the carbon factor into account is simplistic because GHG emissions are significantly influenced by the source of energy used. Climate change is linked with resource use, waste disposal and pollution within sustainable development — therefore, any single dimension (such as the carbon footprint) is an inadequate basis on which to make balanced environmental decisions. For those companies seriously interested in reducing their overall energy consumption, the measurement of the total energy used is essential. The most suitable single unit of energy to use is the Tonne Oil Equivalent (toe).

The objective of Carbon Footprinting is to measure the emissions of a business, production site, product, or service. The primary reason to do this is to drive steps to reduce GHG emissions and fossil energy use. A secondary reason is to act as a base for carbon compensation and communication.

Current sector or national Carbon Footprinting approaches are confusing, costly and complex - they need to be clear, concise and credible. A uniform, international approach to Carbon Footprinting that takes into account all elements of the graphics industry value chain is required. Political administrations are increasingly looking at standards, labels and other instruments relevant to consumers to involve them in climate change mitigation. Therefore, attention goes beyond the carbon emissions of production activities, companies or sectors, focussing also on emissions associated with products.

There are a number of Carbon Footprinting issues that need to be resolved: the definition of boundaries can be the source of incompatibility, confusion and concerns over data precision; how to calculate energy mix and conversion factors; avoided emissions are not covered in standards and are seen as having a sliding scale of creativity and credibility. More clarity is also required for carbon sequestration, neutral/offsets, and trading.