FSC chain-of-custody certification has helped some in-plants. Others don't want it.

By Bob Neubauer

The Logo: More a Pain Than a Plus?

The most prized part of a job printed by an FSC-certified printer—the FSC logo—can also be its biggest curse.

“Most of...our customers don’t want the FSC logo on it, simply because—and I happen to agree with them—it’s too ugly,” declares Abbas Badani, director of Penn State’s Multimedia & Print Center. “It actually takes away from the design of the piece.”

This has pitted the significance of having a “green” image against the importance of the job’s appearance.

Dwayne Magee, director of the Messiah College Press, has outsourced jobs to an FSC-certified commercial printer.

“When the proofs came back with the FSC logo on there, our end users say, ‘take it off there. It’s interfering with our message,’ ” he says.

FSC keeps tight control over how its (trademarked) logo can be used, including the size. Since the logo would look ridiculously large on small items like business cards, remarks Jean-Luc Devis, Washington State Printer, his FSC-certified in-plant has had to leave it off of business cards.

The Forest Stewardship Council needs to come up with some new designs to accommodate printers, he suggests.

“FSC could be more successful if they were a bit more flexible,” he declares.

For Dale Wymore, earning chain-of-custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was the most natural thing in the world.
“One of our strategic priorities on campus is a sustainability initiative, and so really [we were] just trying to follow the guiding principals of the university,” says Wymore, manager of Printing Services at California State University-Chico.

Across the country at Messiah College, in Grantham, Pa., the view is a bit different.

“The issue of the environment is important,” says Dwayne Magee, director of the College Press. “But having the certification in our shop isn’t a huge issue.”

Over the past year, a handful of in-plants—mostly in higher-ed—have earned FSC chain-of-custody certification. By making the extra effort to promote sustainability, they are setting a great example and improving the image of their in-plants and their parent organizations.

Yet many other in-plants—no less concerned about the environment—question the benefits of certification from programs like the FSC, the Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) or others. They are recycling, using vegetable-based inks, eliminating chemicals and even using FSC-certified papers, but they feel the extra expense of certification, especially in a time of cutbacks, is not worth it.

“I don’t know that I could justify [the cost] just to be allowed to print some silly logo,” says Don Harty, former assistant director of campus services at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He echoes the view of many who wonder why they need to go through the hassle and expense of FSC certification just to show they care about the environment.

The Payback

Those that got the certification, though, say the cost and minimal extra work are more than paid back through an improved image, an alignment with the organization’s priorities and a sense of doing the right thing.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited nearly 170 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.

FSC Certification: Is It Worth It?