Quad/Graphics: Print is efficient

Efficient energy use.

The pulp, paper and printing industry accounts for about 5.7 percent of global industrial final energy use, of which printing is a very small share. Cogeneration is accomplished in most cases by low-impact hydroelectric generation. Turbines are placed on an adjacent river to turn generators that produce electricity. Unlike large-scale hydroelectric operations, low-impact hydroelectric generation preserves the flow of a river, allowing it to maintain healthy oxygen levels while also allowing fish migration to occur. On-site generation lowers the demand on the power grid.

To supplement on-site generation and achieve maximum use of "green power", Quad/Graphics purchases renewable energy certificates from utility companies, which provide a subsidy to designated renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro-electric and biomass power plants. The theory behind RECs is that by providing a subsidy to renewable energy producers, it will make them more competitive in the energy market.

Efficient Production.

Quad/Graphics is driven by efficiency, which results in efforts to reduce waste in every aspect of production and distribution. Modern large-format presses reduce energy consumption per printed page. Inline finishing reduces paper waste and minimizes logistics. Digital prepress technologies, such as computer-to-printing-plate systems, eliminate the chemical and solid waste resulting from traditional photographic platemaking processes. Some of our systems require no printing plates at all. For example, our digital presses allow direct digital color printing using toner technology.

Lean manufacturing, implemented by Quad/Graphics and many of today’s forward-thinking manufacturers, has instilled formal processes to further reduce waste and add customer value at all stages of print production.

Giant spider-like pipes are part of the solvent recovery system of Quad/Graphics’ gravure printing plants. Between 1989 and 2007, our gravure pressrooms reduced VOC emissions by 83 percent despite a 1,308 percent increase in relative production.

Quad/Graphics’ gravure pressrooms are engineered to be permanent total enclosures. This allows all of the solvent-laden air within our pressrooms to be captured for reuse. In 2007, our average corporate solvent recovery rate was 99.57 percent, which far exceeds the maximum standard of 92 percent required by the EPA.

Efficient distribution.

The SmartWay Transport PartnershipSM was introduced in 2004 as an innovative, market-based partnership to reduce fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants from the freight sector. Today, more than 1,000 businesses and organizations have joined. Together these companies are conserving almost 600 million gallons of diesel fuel per year, saving at least $2.5 billion in annual fuel and maintenance costs and eliminating an estimated 6.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.

Quad/Graphics was the first printer to join SmartWay and is the only three-time recipient of the SmartWay Environmental Excellence Award. Our SmartWay partnership has led to efficiencies that have prevented the emission of 11,878 tons of CO2 – the equivalent of taking 2,332 passenger cars off the road for a year.

With the industry’s largest co-mailing operations, we not only reduce postal costs for our clients, we also reduce fuel consumption and delivery emissions by combining different magazine and catalog titles into a single mailstream. Co-mailing not only provides postal savings for our customers, it also results in efficiency that’s good for the environment because fewer and larger pallets mean fewer trucks on the road and fewer miles driven.