Two Sides Australia call to arms for printing and paper industry

Industry promotion campaign kicks off a recruitment drive ahead of launching in January 2012.

Calling all printing and paper companies – your industry needs your support to present a fair and balanced defence of its activities to the wider community. The rollout of the Australian version of UK-based Two Sides is seeking supporters to enlist in the fight.

A seminal meeting of major industry players at Homebush, NSW, last Friday welcomed the support and encouragement of Martyn Eustace, director of Two Sides in the UK. Sponsored by APIA (Australasian Paper Industry Association) the meeting was opened by chairman John Walker, Sappi Australia managing director, (pictured below on left with Martyn Eustace and Bill Healey, CEO Printing Industries) who officially terminated the Paper Part of Every Day campaign and committed the association to supporting a local branch of Two Sides Australia.

According to Walker the previous campaign struggled to get traction, partly due to a lack of funding for a permanent administrator. But he also said it was a little like “reinventing the wheel, when Two Sides already has the wheel.”

The main trust of the new campaign is to provide the industry with useful and credible information to combat ill informed and mischievous attacks on the viability and sustainability of the printing paper channel. “If we don’t do it, who else will,” asked Martyn Eustace at the start of his presentation.

He began with some hard facts. “The world sees us as a destructive and wasteful industry. Printing and paper gets the raw end of the deal. It is up to us to combat these perceptions in a straightforward and honest way,” he said.

The Two Sides approach is to tackle the environmental arguments head on while maintaining a balanced approach. “We must be factual and authoritative in exploring the myths surrounding the industry while setting out the facts.”

There is no use ducking the question, as “paper usage will always come under scrutiny,” he said. “The environmental debate is too complex to simplify, too emotive to take lightly and too serious if we get it wrong.”

Two Sides has enlisted the support of an impressive range of industry bodies, companies and associations in the UK and Europe. It is currently setting up a branch in the USA and is reviewing the potential of a Japanese entity.

It has been able to commission its own surveys and reports on paper usage and the perceptions of printing as a medium, with Price Waterhouse, an associate member. It has created marketing collateral Click here to see the image gallery for members to customise to their own requirements and actively engages and repels ‘green washing claims’ from utilities, banks and financial institutions.

(This latter is the nefarious practice of corporations using inaccurate environmental claims about printing and paper usage to sell product or cut costs.)

“It is important that we don’t let them get away with it,” said Eustace.

Printing Industries will run Two Sides Australia under the auspices of APIA, at least for the first year. Bill Healey, CEO, said the Association had the resources and the commitment to provide an effective secretariat for the campaign. “When we sat around the table to decide what to do about Two Sides, I realised most of the supporters of Paper Part of Every Day were our members. So I thought we were the logical people to run Two Sides as an across industry campaign,” he said.

He pledged Two Sides Australia to operate with tighter KPIs than previously, as well as expanding the membership to include sectors that use and rely on printing and paper, such as retail, media and design. He envisions Two Sides Australia will replicate the success of the UK operation in terms of providing an industry forum to represent the industry to itself as well as connect to the broader community and important industry intermediaries such as print buyers and agencies.

The meeting closed with John Walker stating his belief that, “Two Sides Australia has legs, but it needs your support.” The fledgling campaign is cashed up to the extent that it will receive the $50k over from the previous Paper Part of Every Day campaign. But it will need more, quite a lot more.

To get further information on how Two Sides Australia will work look on the UK website. For details on how to join, email Douglas Browning, Secretary APIA.


My Say – Patrick Howard

It’s always difficult to raise funds in an industry that has so many touch points to the broader economy. Most companies are already contributing members to two or more associations and causes.

Which is why Two Sides Australia requires special pleading to succeed. In a media-driven world where printing is regarded as an easy target by unprincipled enviro lobbyists, it is essential the industry has an effective means of rebutting false claims and promoting its sustainability credentials.

Two Sides is a very professional and well-funded resource – at least in the UK. Under Martyn Eustace it is an effective and credible source of industry information and promotion.
Two Sides Australia has all the potential to become an equally important voice for the industry here as well as providing uniquely Australian targeted collateral in the form of advertisements and brochures for the use of members.

The local campaign will run off the same server as the UK organisation but it is vital that the industry here develops its own research and collateral to take account of Australia’s unique situation. While the European merchants supply a large amount of paper here, we are always under pressure to increase our use of Asian paper. There are vexed issues to be addressed with some suppliers in our region, especially if Two Sides Australia is to maintain a defensible credibility.

All the more reason why a solid, united and decently funded Two Sides Australia is essential for long-term sustainability of the printing industry.