Germany’s WKS says print impact is less than assumed

WKS is one of Germany’s largest printers – literally. It runs the largest web offset presses in the world. These are two 160pp Manroland Lithoman web press, that is twin web 80pp machines running into a single folder. There are 13 other web presses and some sheetfed capacity. It produces retail flyers that are pushed through every letterbox in Germany every week. It operates from five locations across the country, generates sales of €300 million from 800 staff. It gets through 340 tonnes of paper a day, much of it recycled paper. And the group is one of the greenest printers in the country. It has Blue Angel certification across its sites, and measures everything. Even before the squeeze on gas suppliers, the company was building a vast solar farm alongside the factory in Grabfeld at a cost of €2.5 million.

And it is confident of its position as the fourth largest printer in Europe (ahead of Dutch group DeJong and Walstead). This year CEO Ralf Dittmann has been on something of a mission to hammer home that the environmental impact of print is much less than is generally thought and that the effectiveness of print is greater. Brands should not be switching their spend into digital only channels.

“In 2009 we decided to focus on production of advertising supplements; we merged Westend Group with Kraft-Schlötels and have since acquired more print capacity and cross media agencies. Print is the only push medium.”

That its work gets into every German household also makes it exposed to concerns that print is harmful to the environment. Dittmann has the data to deflect this. As much as 76% for the paper it uses is from recovered fibre, though this is a challenge as so much recovered fibre is headed for packaging purposes. “We would be happy to have more recycled paper, but we just can’t get it. Around 90% of the paper produced in Germany uses recycled fibre and almost all paper in a household is returned for recycling – one of the highest rates in the world.”

Germany also has one of the largest users of paper, each citizen consuming 227kg a year. Today more than half of that is from packaging rather than graphical papers. 

This means, he says, the there is a print carbon footprint per German household of 20kg per year. Each household in the country Generates 10 tonnes CO2e. Print may not be carbon neutral, but for Germans wanting to reduce their carbon impacts, print should not be the target. According to government figures, he says, each 1kg of organic beef generates 21kg of CO2e; for standard beef, this is 14kg per 1kg of beef. Changing eating habits can have a greater impact. Even 1kg of mushrooms will have a carbon footprint of 2-4kg. “Printing products are responsible for less than 1% of the carbon per head in Germany. As a country we have to change our behaviour to be carbon neutral.”