One company’s ad even claimed that its processes have virtually no impact on the environment. Uh? The only way of having no impact on the environment is to be dead. Otherwise, every time you breathe you have an impact on the environment, not to mention the electricity, the water, the chemicals and all the other things print shops use that definitely impact the planet.
 

Printing is fundamentally an environmentally unfriendly process. For starters, we chop down trees to make paper, mine the earth to make aluminum, use oil in our inks, and consume gobs of power doing those things. But as an industry we are no worse than other manufacturing sectors and better than some. And printers have come far in operating responsible shops.
 

It’s a no-brainer that all of us—as consumers, or print-shop owners, or humans—should do our bit to be environmentally responsible and protect our planet. Every print shop in the world, and every supplier to the industry should do as little damage as possible, should contribute to environmental programs and should communicate it to print clients and print buyers.
 

But if the message is going to be effective, it has to be done responsibly and honestly. The danger is that in their enthusiasm to promote their green quotient, companies may be sliding toward meaningless hyperbole and empty spin. It’s not enough to say, “I love this planet and I am environmentally responsible. Buy from me.” You have to actually do something meaningful, and you have to prove you’re doing it. It has to make sense. And you have to be aware of the potential holes in your message that can be used against you. If you put out fluffy spin, clients will eventually see it as the empty rhetoric it is. And that may drive them away from print faster than anything else we could possibly do.
 

Congratulations are in order for some of our writers and contributors. In early June, Graphic Monthly Canada took home a couple of plaques at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards, given out by the Canadian Business Press in recognition of editorial excellence in trade magazines. Regular contributor Nancy Clark received a Silver award in the How-To Category for her piece, “Think inside the box” (February 2006), which examines what printers must do to succeed in the packaging market. Former associate editor Kate Calder received a Top 5 nomination in the Best Industrial Article Category for her story, “Printing options that wow” (August 2006).
 

Graphic Monthly Canada also re-ceived an honourable mention in the Best Feature Category at the Tabbie Awards, an international editorial competition. The noted article was “China targets print,” by me (April 2006). In both awards programs Graphic Monthly was the most highly recognized printing magazine.