Printers are weary and wary of SFI and FSC

For many printers, particularly medium and smaller printers that I speak to on a regular basis, the honeymoon [if ever there was one] with certification from FSC and SFI is well and truly over, at least for the moment.

While it is absolutely true that many major corporations stipulate that their printers must be FSC or SF I certified, this is not true of the majority of clients in the printing industry and while the trend has certainly been upwards it is by no means generally spread across the markets. The cost of acquiring certification and, in particular, the annual audit fees, have long been a bone of contention for medium and smaller sized printers and the economic downturn has fueled that view.

Printers tell me that they no longer see a benefit nor do they see a long-term change in the market toward greater demand. In fairness FSC have recently introduced a "group certification program" for printers which will bring the prices down significantly. [This was in fact an idea that I suggested to SF I several years back but was blocked because FSC international was unable at that time to put it in practice]. The problem always was that both FSC and SF I were forestry programs that were being applied to the printing industry and while this had perfect sense at its base, it did not take to account the reality of the world of print.

But, and this is a very big but, this is not to suggest in any way that the market for sustainable print is not a growing requirement of the total sustainability market. The problem has been that end-users have had no alternative way of measuring the sustainability of printers with any ease. The mistaken idea { and a mistake that is made throughout the supply chain] that FSC or SF I certification somehow makes printers "green" is simply untrue but unless the end user has a well-informed checklist of what a sustainable printer actually looks like and does there is no easy way to judge those aspects of print performance.

Over the last two or three years, as the sustainable market has grown, there have been various attempts made by bodies like the PIA [Printing Industries of America] and Print Buyers Online [PBOL] to deal with this problem. After all it makes sense that printers should play a leading role in the determination of what is genuinely sustainable print. Arguably the most successful program is the SGPP [Sustainable Green Printing Partnership] which is literally a program designed by printers for the industry. While the costs of acheiving SGPP certification are significantly lower than FSC or SFI [neither of which may I say again have anything to do with sustainable print], the administration at this point appears to be somewhat time-consuming and in an economic downturn this is something that should be hammered out between area printing representatives and the SGPP. Finally that group will have to find a way to persuade corporate end-users that this is the best way to confirm that their printers are practicing environmentally responsible print. FSC and SFI can tell you how hard it is to crack the end user market, but the regional print associations could be well advised to try to steer this one. I think it is very much in their interests.!