Proud to choose print: Harry Brelsford’s commentary

Sick of being told to “think before you print”, Print21 columnist, Harry Brelsford of Varsity Graphics decided to fight back with a unique email signature of his own. Now, he wants you to join in too.

We have all received those annoying emails telling us to consider the environment before printing. One day I received one too many and decided it was time to strike back. The reality is, as annoying and misleading as we may think those emails may be, they have been effective. I get them from our customers and even received one from a photocopier dealer. That phrase, "to be seen to be green" comes to mind.

Meanwhile, I am proud to promote the use of paper because I know that it is derived from trees farmed specifically for the purpose of producing paper for print and that the paper and pulp industry plants more than it harvests. This is one of the major reasons why there are now more trees in the developed world than one hundred years ago.

For some time I have been following Bernard Cassell's ‘Paper – part of everyday’ campaign in Print21 articles and on the APIA www.papereveryday.com.au website about the pulp and paper industry being one of the few truly sustainable sectors. The APIA site helped motivate me to find a way for the small printer to contribute, to start to make our customers aware of the other side of the story, that using paper can actually be beneficial to the environment.

And then the turning point, one morning I received an email from a client that told me to, "Think B4U Print – 1 ream of paper = 6% of a tree and 5.4kg CO2 in the atmosphere, 3 sheets of A4 paper = 1 litre of water, Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.”

Where do they get this stuff? is what I thought and decided to fight fire with fire, to create our own email signature telling the other side of the story. I have included the email that I created below which we have been using for most of this year on all our emails with some positive and zero negative feedback.

Emails of the "don't print" variety emanating from the print buyer of a large customer rightfully concerns us. It is safe to assume that these buyers would rather be moving their print to the web than increasing their ink on paper spend and they need to be made aware of the facts regarding paper.

The case for print
I often think that the individuals sending those “don't print” messages may not be informed as to whether printing is harmful or beneficial to the environment or that sending an email may create a bigger carbon footprint than a printed sheet of paper, it is simply cool to be seen to be doing something to "save the planet".

The fact is a printed sheet of paper lying on your desk is ready to read 100% of the time by any number of people without having to fire up a computer, without consuming energy or emitting CO2. This is not the case for email which requires an energy-consuming device attached to a network in order to transmit or display it.

Forwarding emails and leaving a flat screen computer on all day to read or redirect an email creates a carbon footprint much larger than our email proponents would probably like to admit or even know about. I recently heard a claim that the global IT industry, which includes the use of the internet and the transmission of emails, creates an even larger carbon footprint than the whole global aviation industry and the fuel that it consumes combined.

Then, according to a report by the US Department of Energy, the amount of electricity used solely by data centres in America doubled from 2000 to 2006 increasing to 60 billion kilowatt hours per year. It will probably have doubled again by now. Greenpeace also stated that by 2020 data centres will demand more electricity than is currently used by countries such as Brazil, Canada, Germany and Australia combined. Ink on paper suddenly does not seem so bad.

It also seems that the general public do not distinguish between old growth forests and plantations where trees are a crop grown specifically for harvesting. Paper products are not derived from old growth forests in the developed world, they are derived from commercial crops, which is the major reason why there are more trees right now than in days gone by.

And then there is deforestation. The “don't print” brigade will be quick to point out that saving paper saves the forest. Well, there is another side to this story. What they have overlooked is that if the demand for paper declines then land used for growing trees, massive tree plantations around the world, will no longer be viable and the land will be used for other purposes such as housing development, cattle grazing and the like. This is why it is important to continue to use paper derived from sustainable tree plantations - to help prevent deforestation, not cause it. Choose print!

For more on the declining use of print causing deforestation go to <www.printgrowstrees.com>.

What can we do?
So, what can the small printer do to spread the message that print and paper is a good thing? We decided to create our own signature promoting the reasons why print is good for the environment.

I had been struck by the APIA claim that the paper industry plants more than it harvests and that today there are around 25 per cent more trees in the developed world than in 1900. This is an amazing statistic and one not many printers are even aware of. This is substantiated in the "Paper - Naturally Sustainable" PDF on the <www.papereveryday.com.au> website.

You can also check out a great short video on Youtube.com, search for "MillCraftPaper" and click on the video, "Do you know the facts?" We direct some of our customers to this site in our email communications.

Talking point
I had noted during conversations with clients when I mentioned the fact that there are more trees on the planet today than in 1900 due to the commercial use of paper and wood products that they paid attention. I decided to incorporate this fact into our email signature.

The inspiration for the signature also came from signatures supporting the use of print being used by members of the American PrintOwners forum. I took from them and re-wrote the signature using the 25% APIA claim and now the signature is being used by many printers around the world.

The signature we use on all our emails.
 
Choose print. The paper industry plants more than it harvests and today there are 25% more trees in the developed world than in 1900. Paper is biodegradable, renewable and sustainable. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs while forestry plantations provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. A decline in the demand for paper products risks a decline in sustainably managed re-growth forests. Use print, it is tangible, it is effective in getting your message across and when recycled it will come back to us as paper or board.

Feel free to use this signature on your emails.
We also created an A1 size full-colour poster for our window using the same information and I am happy to send you a free PDF copy, send an email to the address below.

Harry Brelsford runs Varsity Graphics with his daughter on the Gold Coast. Email: Harry@VarsityGraphics.com.au