Agfa Graphics revealed the six winners that were chosen from entries submitted throughout the worldwide graphic arts market received their awards. The winning companies are engaged in a range of diverse printing applications, from very large format commercial offset printing, through to digital and newspaper printing.
The global Sustainability Awards programme was created by Agfa Graphics at the beginning of 2013. The programme recognises and honours companies that integrate, support and promote sustainably sound practices, and all of the winners demonstrate active participation in sustainability initiatives and are well-placed to help print buyers meet their own Corporate Social Responsibility goals.
There awarded companies were:
- Gráfica e Editoro Aquarela – a large commercial printer in São Paulo (Brazil) with a long history of social and environmental programmes. The company has an eco-efficiency waste management programme seeking continuous improvement of production processes to reduce the use of natural resources. It also stands out because of its investment in social projects, such as a project to hire young people and people with disabilities, and another project to fight childhood cancer.
- Cascades – multi-national papermakers, active in packaging paper and board, tissue, and fine papers Canadian company. It follows eighteen measurable sustainable development objectives, with environmental impact criteria measured constantly as part of daily operations.
- EarthColor – one of the largest commercial print houses in the USA. It has set up a list of sustainability objectives and works with its customers to help them implement common goals.
- Graphica Printer – a commercial printer of coin in Buenos Aires (Argentina) is cutting waste and chemistry.
- Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN) – is a newspaper site in Germany, that streamlines newspaper production using the principles of sustainability. They received the award during WPE2013 in Berlin.
- Bright Printing-a company in New South Wales (Australia) has been chosen as one of three companies to showcase energy-efficient businesses to university accounting graduates.
- The CEO of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, Christian Reinaudo, handed over the Sustainability Award to Gráfica e Editoro Aquarela. We are honoured to be one of the few companies to receive this Sustainability Award. To us, this award, honouring such an important issue, means recognition of the fact that we are on the right track in our constant search for more sustainable processes and products, said Paolo Marangoni, industrial director of Aquarela Gráfica e Editora.
Georg Siepmann, from BNN said, We recognise the chem free technology from Agfa as a sustainable and future-oriented product, because the associated ecological and economic objectives provide the user and the environment a substantial benefit.
This diverse group of companies are all using Agfa Graphics consumables and technologies to reduce waste. The winners share a commitment to process efficiently through technology investments, but they are also reaching out to staff and their customers.
This holistic approach to managing the environmental impact has gained several of the Agfa Graphics Sustainability Award winners recognition in their local markets and even beyond the graphic arts industry. Agfa Graphics Sustainability Award programme will be repeated on an annual basis.
