THE MAGAZINE FOR FORWARD THINKJUNE 2013

FHI EU IMBER

ALTER THEIMof the sustainability of print forev

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COMMENTARYt_,!

THE EU TIMBER REGULATION WILL HAVE PASSED MOST printers but it has

some very interesting consequences for the printing industry as our round

table discussion discovered. First and most importantly, it means that all

paper in the UK will be made from legal sources of fibre, either

recovered paper or from pulp that can be traced to its country of origin

and the forest therein. At a stroke, arguments that print and paper are

responsible for rain forest destruction and every associated evil vanish.

This was not an intended consequence of the EUTR as paper uses just

11 % of felled trees. However, it is something that organisations like Two

Sides should seize. One leg of the anti-paper argument has been pulled

away Other organisations with a vested interest in paper and print need

also to take advantage of the new rules and devise a means of promoting

what they mean to purchasers of paper and to end consumers, through

the design of a logo, advertising and so on. There is little awareness about

EUTR and that needs to change.

Paper merchants and printers should take up the baton, after all if

customers are conerned about using paper because of their corporate GSR

policies, they need to be shown that that concern is truly baseless. Not only

is paper a completely recyclable, managed resource, it is completely legal.

The British Government says so.

EUTR makes no comment about social factors and other environmental

factors on the ground. That is an issue for the countries with the forests,

though legislation will surely become tighter and the rules change to take

indigenous peoples and fauna into account. This role is currently filled by

forest management organisations like FSC and PEFC, giving them a

contirariing role. However, the need for full FSC chain of custody

certification is now weakened.

This could be good news for UK printers who had signed up for FSC to

satisfy customers and thinking it might generate a premium on price only

to become disillusioned. They can reassure customers that using paper is

the right Thing to do.

GARETH WARD Esrw

JUNE 2013NEWS Precision orderssecond 10000; BPIF kicks offmanagement training

I&I Deltor returns to B2;Warwick buys new; CrossMedia Launches at North Print& Pack; Tharstern takes MISto the tablet

COVER STORY Paper gets EUstamp of approval

PRESSES Printers need tothink new or fall behind

FESPA What to look out forin London

FRTTDRTAI GARETH WARD °1580 236456 • 078.LU11 l/rVJLrlL gareth.ward@printbusinessmagazine.co.uk

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fOMMFPfTAI DEBBIE WARD 01580 236456 • 07711 696190VA/lvllvlul\\»lML printbusiness_sales@me.com • printbusinessmedia.co.ukPublished by Print Business Media Ltd. 3 Zion Cottages, Ranters Lane, Goudhurst, Kent TN17 1HR. ® Copyright Print Business Media Ltd 2013. All rights reserved. Apply for T&Cs.

EU TIMBER REGULATION

*

ForceFOR GOOD

The printing industry in the UK hasbeen handed a fantastic opportu-nity to strike back against those thatclaim print and paper is responsi-

ble for destruction of tropical rain forests,for species extinction, climate change, andpossibly the recession. The golden ticketcomes with the European Union TimberRegulation which states that timber andproducts derived from timber, includingpaper, that is sold in the 27 EU membercountries must come from legal sources.However, as they say, not a lot of peopleknow this.

And for this reason, Print Business puttogether a round table comprising JamesJarvis, marketing director of Antalis;Matthew Bottfield, environmental managerof the paper merchant; Richard Owersdevelopment director of leading environ-mental printer Pureprint; Paul Manning,managing director of central London digitalprinter Rapidity; and Stuart Andrews, whoonce worked for Suzano and latterly for thenotorious APP, before setting up Sustain-able Options, his own consultancy aroundpaper and timber and advice on sourcing. Heknows the regulations from all sides, havingattended all the meetings and discussions inthe run up to the introduction of the rules.

"THE EUTR IS MANDATORY. Thevirgin fibre content of a paper product hasto comply. Illegal logging contributes todeforestation, so all wood and fibre productsmust comply. And from that perspective, it'sbetter than forest management programmesas you don't have to pay for membershipevery year," says Andrews.

The regulations are policed by theNational Measurement Office in thiscountry, aided by Interpol and contraven-tions carry the risk of confiscation of goods,

The EU TimberRegulation could

change the way theworld views print.Will printers take

advantage?

a €5,000 fine and a two-year jail sentence.In theory anyone involved in movement ofillegal goods could be in the firing line, inpractice it is likely to be what the regulationdefines as the operator. This is the companythat brings in the goods from beyond EUborders. The law also defines the trader asthe organisation responsible for movementof the paper within the EU.

THIS PUTS ANTALIS IN BOTH CAMPS.Says Bottfield: "Almost all products we buyare from the internal market, from mills inAustria, Finland, Germany and so on, whichare inside the EU. That makes us a trader forthose products. We are defined as an opera-tor when we buy directly from mills in Brazilor South Africa and then place the productswithin the EU.

"This means that it is unlikely that aprinter will ever become an operator."

Unlikely perhaps, but not impossible.Should a printer be buying paper directlyfrom mills in Korea or takes up one of theemailed offers from China, he becomesan operator and must demonstrate theadequate due diligence that the TimberRegulation requires to prove that the paperhas not been sourced from illegally loggedtrees. The adequate due diligence aspect

will vary depending on the amount beingimported, an irregular container shipmentwill demand less due diligence than a largecompany importing regular large volumes,a paper merchant for example.

"We always want to be sustainable," saysJarvis. "It's the right thing for us to do andconsequently we are always quite diligentabout where we want to buy things from.Then the sustainability aspect of FSC andPEFC came along and with them the admin-istrative burden and cost associated, so wehad to ask ourselves could we operate at thislevel?,The answer was that if it is demandedby customers and provides a selling advan-tage then it would be worthwhile making theinvestment. The problem with FSC is thatthere's a considerable amount of cost drivenby end users asking for it and not necessar-ily understanding why. These certificationsadd lots of cost to the supply chain and notnecessarily for the right reasons. It's more todo with marketing.

"Consequently when we first saw theEUTR, we realised it would help us as it isa legal framework for us to operate to and itprovides the evidence that you are doing thecorrect thing without the burden of all theother stuff. The question now is will peoplestill demand FSC?"

WHEN FSC WAS LAUNCHED in the1990s its aim was to prevent illegal logging,particularly from tropical rain forests. Itreached the UK paper and print industry in2003 to a largely ignorant audience.

There was barely a sheet that qualified atAntalis at the time, Bottfield recalls. "Nowwe have chain of custody in the 42 countrieswe operate in. Anatalis customers in north-ern Europe were quick to get on board withcertification, while a lot of other countriesstill don't talk about FSC certification. Some

16 June 2013 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk

of the papers in the early days were certifiedin the UK but not in other countries. Today50% of the papers we sell are FSC, another6% is covered by PEFC and there are a lotof recycled grades in the portfolio."

"When we started with FSC there was nogreat demand and we were charged higherprices by the mills for FSC product andwe could pass that on to printers. If thereis a cost, someone has to bear that in someway," says Jarvis. Today there is no greatpremium for either the mills, the merchantsor the printers. Nevertheless with a chain ofcustody scheme, the forest, the saw mill, thepulp mill, paper mill, merchant and printerall need to be involved. "There is a lot ofmoney being spent on certification, so if wecan simplify that in some way, it does awaywith a huge amount of cost," he says.

THE PRINTERS CONCUR. RichardOwers says that Pureprint droppedPEFC and saved a couple of thousandpounds "because nobody was asking forit". Manning continues: "FSC can be ahindrance to getting a job done becauseof the need to send artwork away to attainthe CoC number, while today we find thatturnarounds are too fast to do this. It suitssituations where there's quite a lot of timefor a job. Now we will often state that 'thisjob has been printed by an ISO registeredprinting company on paper that complieswith EUTR'. We tell customers now thatthey can have FSC, but that they don't needit."

"We can see that a lot of people are goingto be comfortable with EUTR as a state-ment rather than anything else, because itcarries that force of legality," says Owers."There will be a debate between FSC andEUTR and questions about how do wecommunicate this information. People want

reassurance and credibility. We want to dothe right thing and that's where certifica-tion is useful." However, certification conieswith a price. Jarvis adds: "The average printcompany is a small business and the extracost and administration of having FSC isa burden. I wonder if they ever get thatmoney back."

THE ANNUAL FEE FOR certification isonly the start. There is the consultancy inthe lead up to an audit to pay for and theaudits themselves. For a small printer thatcan amount to a tidy sum, let alone theinvisible costs of administering the chain ofcustody, from paperwork to allocating spacefor the paper. In contrast EUTR imposes noburden.

Andrews sums up: "The voluntary stand-ards were brought in to give people a choice.Now we have a mandatory rule, there isperhaps no need to exercise that choice."

However, FSC will continue to carryweight. It is an organisation which has grownsteadily and whose brand is both recognisedand fiercely protected. Woe betide anyprinter that tries to put "printed on FSCpaper" on a job without being audited andregistered himself. Consequently the valueof the forest management scheme and thechain of custody that flows from it is widelyrecognised and in many instances FSC paperis specified without full appreciation of whatit entails.

IRONICALLY FSC PAPER may not ofitself comply with EUTR, Andrews pointsout. This is because FSC chain of custodydoes not demand full traceability of thespecies of tree that has gone into the pulpto make the paper and this is now a legalrequirement of EUTR. PEFC has alteredits conditions to include that level oftraceability.

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EU TIMBER REGULATION

Matthew Bottfietd of Antalis: "Todayall merchants supply from legalforests yet only 10-12% of printershave FSC or PEFC."

And because every tonne of paper avail-able in the EU is known to be legal, thechain of custody element of FSC and PEFC,which can be burdensome on smaller print-ers, melts away. Chain of custody wouldbe necessary up to the EU borders, butnot inside, says Andrews. "Certificationto recognise forest management is excel-lent, but there is almost no need for chainof custody. Forest management deals withsustainability and legality. EUTR is justfocused on the legality."

SUSTAINABILITY IS, however, one ofthose words which means different thingsto different organisations and in differ-ent places. It is not one that can be usedon any messaging without problems, saysOwers. As a brand, FSC has overcome thisand end users specify it to ensure that theyare protected against allegations of malfai-sance. Andrews suggests that a new messagefor EUTR could be: "This paper is legaland it's not harming forests". In the pack-aging sector this gives cartonboard a greatstory against the trend to use plastics, ifthe message that paper based products arecompletely renewable and that the materialis completely legal and that it is not harmingthe forests that end consumers may beconcerned about.

Cartons become an interesting areabecause as well as ensuring that paper andtimber is produced from legally recognisedsources, the EUTR will ensure that productsmade from paper and fibre must also complywith the regulations where that product will

become part of a larger product once insidethe EU. In short printed carton blanks andprinted envelopes need to satisfy the rules.Books, magazines and other printed matterwhere these are finished products may notneed to comply.

This is a grey area and EUTR is notcompletely prescriptive about where everypossible printed product sits. It will no doubtrequire some kind of test case before hardand fast rules are laid down. This providesa further argument for EU printers as therisk that cartons imported from beyond theEU may be produced from illegally loggedfibre and can therefore be confiscated bythe authorities, let alone the consequentialimage problems that may follow, is simplytoo great.

MAJOR CORPORATES HAVE gone along way to ensure that their supply chainsare clean. "Unilever has a system wherethey gather every scrap of informationabout their supply chains, including allthe paper products that are going throughthat system," Andrews explains. "At thatlevel this becomes knowledge whetherit is needed or not." This type of workmight unearth the unwelcome fact that thepaper comes from GM trees, something hesays that is going to have to be dealt with.Currently EUTR has nothing to say aboutgenetically modified trees.

The current document is in force for atleast five years and already NGOs are start-ing to press for its scope to be widened. Thishappened with FSC. At the outset it was

about preventing deforestation of tropicalrain forests, but spread to cover temperateforests and then to include social issues likerespect for biodiversity and human rights. Itdid not cover the paper making process.

Bottfield points out: "Before 2002 therewere not many papers that were FSC eventhough it had been around since 1993. Itshowed that paper was'produced fromresponsible sources and we had cataloguesto show which papers were covered. Butthere was always the question: what aboutthe other papers? Were these not so green?

"Today all merchants supply from legalforests and from European mills, yet only10-12% of printers have FSC or PEFC andonly 10% of the world's forests are covered.Merchanting takes away the doubts. We aredoing the due diligence, storing the paper inwarehouses for printers to draw down andtaking away the risk from printers. However,as yet very few printers are asking about theTimber Regulation. To some extent theydon't need to. Do you need to know every-thing about a product when you buy fromTesco? That's their job."

PRINT IS NOT QUITE THE SAME asthe supermarket. Printers need to reassuretheir customers and need to market whatthe regulations mean. For Andrews thisis the nub of the issue and where printerscan reduce the reliance on the certificationbodies.

He continues: "It has to be marketedcorrectly. It is reassurance that the paper issourced legally. If your customers want FSCand need it as part of a marketing or CSRpolicy, then carry on with it. EUTR helpsaddress a lot of the issues that caused certifi-cation to come about in the first place."

However, as a legal requirement and asa government sponsored move, there isnot going to be a large marketing budgetpushing any kind of logo to marketing agen-cies, publishers and so on. The industry willhave to create its own marketing message

The industry will have tocreate its own marketingmessage that the paper ajob is printed on is legaland is not harmful to forests.

18 June 2013 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk

COVER STORY

Richard Owers of Pureprint: "For uscarbon offsetting is going to be moreimportant now that we know forestmanagement is taken care of."

Stuart Andrews of SustainableOptions: "EUTR helps address a lot ofthe issues that caused certification tocome about in the first place."

James Jarvis of Antalis: "We need toget this out there so people are morecomfortable with buying print as everyprinter is now legally compliant."

that the paper a job is printed on is legal andis not harmful to forests.

The lack of marketing can quickly stymiean environmental effort in this way. Antaliswas a big supporter of PAS 2020, an initia-tive from the direct mail industry to provethat it was sustainable in the face of allega-tions of junk mailing and the attractions ofemail marketing.

It covered every aspect of the direct mailsupply chain, from acquisition and clean-ing of lists to the paper used, inks andfinally the delivery. Royal Mail stated thatit would provide a discount to direct mailthat complied with the standard. "PAS 2020created a set of ten rules for the supplychain and was the first standard to bringthe whole production and certificationprocess together. It was voluntary but, likeISO 14001, would provide extra value forcustomers," says Jarvis. "But there was noreal cost saving from the Royal Mail."

Manning's business was the first printerto sign up for PAS 2020. "FSC has beensuccessful because designers know about it,PAS 2020 didn't get to that point. It was verylogical and a really good idea, but didn't gainany traction," he says. Today tender formsask about FSC, rightly or wrongly, and hesays this is what drives the adoption of FSC.

THE MESSAGE NEEDS TO be made thatEUTR answers the key element of FSC. "Wehave to show that this will help buyers," saysJarvis, "and demonstrate what it means toother people. We need to market this and getit out there so that people will be comfort-able with buying more print, because everyprinter now is legally compliant.

"When I was young there were competingmilk rounds in our area. The most success-ful had put a message on his milk floatstating 'my bottles are sterilised'. Of courseall bottles had to be sterilised, but he wasmaking an extra point."

"It's about stating the obvious," saysManning. "There's no doubt this will helpthe understanding of where print is comingfrom so that we can say to our customers thatwe can guarantee that this paper came fromwell run forests. As an industry we need tostep outside and need to look at ourselves tosee what our customers see."

Pureprint has always been at the forefrontof environmental issues, winning threeQueen's Awards, the latest this year andbecoming the first UK printer with Emas."We did market research when we won thesecond award and we were surprised at how

much positive impact it had had on ourbusiness, both for customers and for peoplejoining us. But it's only when you havea product that is as good as it can be, whythen wouldn't you go for the environmentaloption?

"Marketing is about creating a differencebetween your product and competing prod-ucts. Now the EU (and the US and Australia)are world leaders in regulating against illegallogging which differentiates us againstanybody outside those three groupings. Andthat can make a difference to specifiers. Printcan do a lot in reference to digital.

"For us carbon offsetting is going to bemore important now that we know thatforest management is taken care of. We needto know that we are minimising our carbonfootprint."

MOST PRINTERS ARE NOT AT thatpoint. EUTR, with the correct marketing,can become a powerful tool for printers touse with their customers and specifiers.The guarantee that the paper is producedlegally, and that therefore there is no riskassociated with specifying print, is a strongone. It is probably not the intention of theadvisers and legislators that drew up theEUTR, but is one that the print industrycan use.

"As printers we can take reflected gloryfrom what has gone on in the EU," saysOwers. "Sustainability is a word withso muqh more to it than people at firstrealise, but illegal logging is very much notsustainable." •

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