Auckland’s Soar Printing has underlined its commitment to the environment by making the shortlist at this year’s Heidelberg eco awards, following red_i print, which made the shortlist two years ago.
The company had to prove its credentials to the independent judges of the awards in order to make the shortlist. Jenny Carter, financial director and environmental officer at Soar Printing, says, “We demonstrated the savings in reducing our environmental footprint over the past few years. Having that backed up with independent certification certainly helped.”
Last year, the company achieved Landcare Research’s carbon zero organisation certification, which included a six month process of measuring greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrating ways to reduce them. The first printing company in New Zealand to achieve Enviromark diamond certification, Soar Printing works hard to stay green. Carter, and her sibling co-directors, Fred and Vicky Soar, take pride in the achievement. Carter says, “We are doing our bit to help reduce climate change. We measure green house gas emissions and purchase carbon credits verify that.”
She accepted an invitation from Heidelberg to meet the other finalists, where she took part in a forum on sustainability, chaired by Stephan Plenz, member of the management board responsible for Heidelberg equipment. He said, “The idea behind the award and the environmental dialogue is to motivate print shops throughout the world to strengthen their commitment to environmental protection even further and to offer an international platform for sharing ideas and learning from each other.
Carter says, “It was a great honour to be invited. Stephan Plenz asked the finalists what challenges they were facing from an environmental and industry point of view and how Heidelberg could help us. A concern we shared was the perception of print from an environmental point of view and what we could do to change that perception.
For me it was really interesting and helpful to meet other companies from overseas and to learn from them. We talked about initiatives for the environment such as using heat recovery from the machines in the plants. For example, a German company is using the heat from its machines to power up lighting and heat on its site; it isn’t using other power to do this.
“One innovative idea came from the Aussie company Vega, which painted its roof in a reflective paint, which reflects the heat out of the building so in summer it makes it more comfortable when it is hot. We’ve also done this at Soar Printing. We are also getting some daylight panels put into our ceilings as we continue to try to bring down our energy costs. We had an energy audit and we have found the building is quite well built for lighting and we can turn off a lot of the artificial light.
While New Zealand has a long way to go to catch up with Europe in its awareness and action on sustainability, Carter believes that more companies will emulate Soar Printing’s approach. She concludes, “We're proud to be using climate-neutral printing and being one of New Zealand's most sustainable print companies. Being the third generation running the company, we have a deep belief that business has to be sustainable for the future. We are stewards of the resources we are using, and must think about our responsibility to the next generation.”
Andrew Tribute
