Sustainability Conference Draws National Audience
For the second year in a row, the California Polytechnic State University hosted “The Business of Green Media” sustainability conference. Held in January in San Luis Obispo, Calif., and produced by SustainCommWorld, the conference drew enthusiastic responses from attendees, who hailed from 17 states and 55 organizations, including several in-plants.
“No printing process is exempt from the governmental requirements and social responsibility of developing sustainable practices,” remarked Harvey Levenson, head of Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department. “It is also imperative to show current and prospective customers that measures are being taken to protect the environment.”
Keynote speaker Christina Page, director of Climate and Energy Strategy for Yahoo!, discussed steps Yahoo! has undertaken to reduce its energy footprint. She cautioned attendees about energy waste that often takes place in businesses, such as when servers are placed in office environments. They must be cooled down to operate effectively, but then employees may run space heaters at their desks to keep warm. This put attendee Michael T. Kalstein in a pensive mood.
“It made me think about the environments that many in-plants have to operate in,” says Kalstein, director of Reprographics and Mail Services at California State University, Sacramento. “The production area, especially around digital machines, needs to be cooled considerably while operating. This can lead to the same space heater issue for office staff sharing space with production. How does that effect sustainability? Will in-plants ever get environments specifically engineered for their specific needs? Will sustainability drive this?”
Kalstein, who said the conference was more focused than last year’s event, also felt that presenter Jim Duffy, from Alonzo Printing, in Alameda, Calif., brought the sustainability message home. Duffy explained that sustainability does not stop at the print process. If you truly want a sustainable plant, Duffy said, you have to look at your entire organization: your building, your landscaping, your delivery services, even your employees’ transportation to work.
Other speakers included Don Carli, Conference Chair at the Institute for Sustainable Communication, who discussed sustainability steps printers can implement. Kenneth L. Macro, assistant professor at Cal Poly, moderated a panel that explored the impact that sustainable supply chain trends, new FTC green marketing guidelines and more stringent VOC emission regulations may have on the way print is purchased and produced.
- People:
- Michael Kalstein
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 more than 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.