INTERGRAF, THE BODY UNITING Europe’s print federations in Brussels, has condemned the Ecolabel for print introduced last year. As currently configured the cost and administrative burden on smaller companies is too great it says.
One of the main problems is that EcoLabel status is granted for a specific product, not for the relationship between printer and his customer, nor for a basket of products that the customer might buy as part of a campaign. Instead each job has to be documented to show that the right paper, materials and processes have been used. And this step has to be verifiable.
CONSEQUENTLY THERE HAS NOT been a rush to sign up for Ecolabel jobs, though major corporates and governmental organisation are understood to be looking at the opportunities as part of their social responsibility agenda.
Intergraf says it has been sceptical about the creation of “yet another label for printers” due to the complexity of printed products compared to others which qualify for Ecolabel status. “However Intergraf has been involved in the elaboration of the user manual in order to ensure that the label would be as applicable as possible for printers and particularly to ensure that a compliant range of products, rather than a single one-off printed product, can be licenced. Although the EU Ecolabel will be costly and administratively constraining, having the possibility of applying it to a range of printed products should enable companies, SMEs in particular, to consider applying.”
SECRETARY GENERAL BEATRICE Klose adds: “European printers are keen to demonstrate their efforts to secure excellent environmental performance. However, excellence should not mean inaccessibility. The excellence of the EU Ecolabel should not imply that it is either unaffordable or inapplicable. This is particularly true for printed products. Printed products are products designed by the customer. One order will not resemble the next.”
However it seems that another set of guidelines is on its way, at least in some countries. Austria is shortly to introduce its own eco-recognition and Germany is understood to be working on a system of its own which will set higher bars for printers to overcome.
Integraf wants the unique situation of the printing industry to be recognised to ensure that the Ecolabel and other systems can achieve the aims set for them of raising environmental and sustainability standards, yet not become so burdensome that printers are discouraged from applying to join it.
