FESPA ‘People Planet Profit’ and the journey to Sustainability Ahead of FESPA Australia’s inaugural conference, People Planet Profit, we caught up with FESPA Head of Associations and Technical Lead, Graeme Richardson-Locke, to learn more about speciality printing communities and their sustainability journey. FESPA: How do the speciality printing communities view the path to sustainability? GR: It’s become a key topic, but the industry is split in terms of scale. If you’re working for large brands, you must have compliance policies in place, so your level of awareness must be considerably higher. Your environmental management statement will have to be in order. The criteria for safeguarding reputation and responsible practice are just prerequisites for doing business. If you’re working with smaller companies, the truth is that most of them lack awareness as to which standards should be focused on. One challenge is that printing is utilised across a vast expanse of both product types and production volumes, requiring an enormous variety of business modelling. FESPA: Are there parts of the industry that are reluctant to change? GR: There are always people who will say sustainability is a nice-to-have, but if they’ve not bought into the fundamental reasons why we need to change our behaviour, they will continue to find reasons to refuse to accept that change is necessary. There are also different priorities for different companies. For example, whether you use cotton or polyester, the local production environment’s context will determine the most sustainable choice. FESPA: So, there isn’t a level playing field? GR: Across speciality printing, we need some standard metrics so that reporting is consistent. With ISO, it’s easy because you’ve got one standard that applies internationally. In Europe, however, auditing schemes, such as EcoVadis, are widely recognised, but this particular programme isn’t featured in other countries. We need product certification schemes tailored to meet the speciality printing community’s needs. For clothing, you’ve got Fairtrade, OEKO-TEX, and PETA, all of which are valuable, but how do those transpose in other countries? Moving to sustainability is not always a straightforward discussion, and some demands are always backed up by scientific targets. FESPA: How big an issue is greenwashing? GR: It is why independent validation is so important: It strips out the ambiguity and the greenwash. The pushback against greenwash is probably the most significant shift we’re looking at. A company might claim they are sustainable because they use organic cotton, but that might not be true. It’s possible that a synthetic material has lower emissions. So, not the perception that a product is sustainable often doesn’t reflect the truth learned through lifecycle analysis. It signals virtuous behaviour but doesn’t make it true. There is increasing consumer demand for transparency in supply chains when deciding whom they buy from. FESPA: What is the main driver of this sustainability movement? GR: Consumers, and it’s interesting because we’re all consumers. Many of us now feel that we need to be accountable for our behaviour thanks to the Greta Thunbergs of this world and a rising chorus of disappointment and disapproval. With a new generation of younger people entering the world of work and becoming established buyers, those less accountable models are unlikely to be fit for purpose. This generation will demand answers to questions that don’t have simple answers. We have to mobilise towards change, and the biggest challenge is to reduce production while preserving value. FESPA: So some businesses might become less profitable? GR: Yes, and some businesses will close. It’s the same with things like software automation. Suppose you’re looking at business modelling around that. It’s about creating a smaller amount of more sustainable, often more expensive products that can justify a higher margin. If you accept the premise that the market has to change, then failure to change will see a decline in profitability because fewer orders will come your way. Without economic success, none of this will work, we’ve depended upon technology to get where we are, and I don’t think that will get us where we need to be. Sometimes it’s the insidious changes that disrupt and alter the market, and people’s presumption that things will always be as they always were is just wrong – and dangerous. FESPA: Where should speciality print communities focus their efforts? GR: Because brands are widely adopting targets for net-zero emissions by 2030, I think it will be a goal with increasing relevance. The question becomes how much of that calculation comes from offsetting and how much is achieved through emissions reduction. Redefining the model from cost- based to a more holistic “People, Planet and Profit” (3Ps) method is where we need to be focusing, thinking about products from their conception, their design, and their lifecycle. We’re not yet widely designing products with lifecycle analysis in mind. Reduce, reuse and recycle are also critical, but there isn’t viable circularity at this point, and that’s a systemic challenge. We’ve got Association members who offer take-back schemes for waste materials but systemically, I think it’s one of the greatest problems we face. All sorts of legislative already exist, but how well are they policed? It’s all very well having legislation, but risk without prosecutions won’t Australia Conference People Planet Profit – 27 October 2022, Sydney. Register to attend at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/fespa- conference-2022-tickets-337804019917 WWW.IMAGEMAGAZINE.COM.AU OCT/NOV 2022 11 stimulate behavioural change. Hear more from Graeme at the FESPA frameworks
