Heidelberg Awarded For Environmentally Friendly Presses

HEIDELBERG, Germany—Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) recently won the “Most Progressive Environmental Process” award from Canadian trade magazine PrintAction. More than 400 representatives from the Canadian print media industry were present to see Heidelberg receive the award for its environmentally friendly presses.

One aspect that was rated particularly highly was the company’s holistic approach to environmental protection, with environmental issues being taken into consideration at every stage—from the development and manufacture of presses to their operation in print shops.

The Lowe Martin Group and Hemlock Printers Ltd. both received gold awards in the “Most Environmentally Progressive Printers (100+ employees)” category. Both print shops use Heidelberg presses and this is the third year that Hemlock Printers has won the award. Heidelberg sheetfed offset equipment at Hemlock Printers includes three Speedmaster SM 102, Speedmaster CD 74, Speedmaster SM 52, and two Quickmaster 46 presses, with a total of 40 printing units. Hemlock Printers also uses the Prinect Image Control color measuring system and has been able to minimize its use of resources and the level of waste and emissions it produces. In 2007, it generated 80 percent less non-recyclable waste than the previous year.

The PrintAction awards go to manufacturers, suppliers, print shops, and print buyers with outstanding green credentials. The awards cover various categories, such as the development of innovative technologies and processes for environmental protection and social commitment to the environment. They focus on projects that extend over a number of years and therefore have lasting benefits for the environment.

Last year, to push environmental factors higher up the agenda when designing and developing new presses, Heidelberg joined forces with Darmstadt University of Technology to develop an intranet-based environment portal. Developers working on a new inking unit, for example, can use the portal to obtain the relevant environmental requirements from a comprehensive database. Moreover, the developers’ own environmental protection know-how can also be fed into the database, where it can be used in the medium term as an example of best practice. The portal is to be launched shortly and has been designed to anchor environmental protection in the very first stage of the product life cycle—a stage that is also crucial for shaping the future and driving standards forward.