Business Management - Sustainability

Tapped to oversee an in-plant located in a college football stadium (really), Tom Tozier needed a new game plan. “When I came here [in January 2008], not only was the shop not CTP, we were farming out to a film setter. We actually bought our film from a print shop in town,” admits Tozier, director of Imaging Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

As the demand for four-color work increased at Madison Gas and Electric’s in-plant, so did the Wisconsin shop’s need to upgrade its platemaking process. “We had two-color Ryobis, but about 80 percent of our work was four color,” reports Graphics Services Supervisor Chris Hrubes. He targeted chemistry-free CTP as the ideal solution for the facility’s workload requirements and environmental standards.

Steve Schmuger, graphic services manager for Miami-Dade County’s General Services Administration, can summarize one of his most important job responsibilities into three words: feeding the organism. Schmuger envisions the shop’s workflow as a dynamic, vital entity. “It can do more and more things for you, but you must keep feeding it—that is, investing in technology and adding more components,” he asserts.

Tucked inside a nondescript brick building at the edge of campus, the University of Delaware’s Graphic Communications Center has brought a lot of favorable attention to the university in recent years. The quality of its offset printing has earned the in-plant numerous awards, including two Best of Show honors in the In-Print contest. Now the 19-employee in-plant is bringing the Fighting Blue Hens into the spotlight once again by becoming one of the first in-plants to install a new Xerox iGen4 digital color press. 

As companies and organizations catch “the green wave” and start looking for ways to improve their sustainability, they rely heavily on the initiatives of their individual departments. In-plants can play a major part in the overall green success of their organizations. One in-plant that’s leading the way is the Reprographics department at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), the nation’s largest regional education agency. Thanks to an equipment upgrade, the shop’s Océ digital printers now reportedly discharge up to 90 percent less ground-level ozone, consume up to 45 percent less energy and emit a much lower operating noise level than ever before.

Two interests from early in Tom Tozier’s life have continued into adulthood: a love of music and a dedication to the graphic arts industry. Tozier, director of Imaging Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has carved a niche as a leader in the in-plant printing community while keeping his passion for the guitar alive. Born on a U.S. Army base in Nuremberg, Germany, and raised in California, Tozier got his first taste of the printing industry at age 14, when he went to work at a print shop east of Los Angeles owned by his stepfather. By tackling menial tasks like sweeping and helping out in the bindery, he learned a craft while putting spending money in his pocket.

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.

AbitibiBowater has been taking action to help combat climate change for several years. Since 2000, the company has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent per ton. The progress to date can be attributed to a company-wide focus on improved efficiency and to switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. In 2008, AbitibiBowater was 46 percent self-sufficient from renewable sources for its total energy needs. A new biomass boiler at the Fort Frances, Ontario, mill produces 46 MW of “green” electricity. In fact, 66 percent of the fuel used in the company’s boilers is supplied by carbon-neutral biomass such as sawdust and wood residues.

The printing division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses a great deal of electricity. To conserve energy and save money, the 450-employee Salt Lake City in-plant wanted to flatten out its extreme peaks and valleys. “We typically experience a peak [in terms of usage] at 7:30 a.m., for example,” notes Director Craig Sedgwick. Fortunately, the in-plant’s power company has been a friend both to the environment and to the in-plant.

Sustainability starts at the corporate level. Several vendors are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, use alternative energy sources, recycle and more.