The Verdigris Blog by Laurel Brunner

This article was produced by the Verdigris project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, Ricoh, Spindrift, Splash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.

Please also include the Verdigris logo and a link to this website. If you don't already have our logos, you can get them by downloading the "Publishers Bundle" from our Archive page. And don’t forget terms of the Creative Commons license at the footer of the site. Enjoy!

The changing face of fashion

Mon, 04/04/2022 - 10:22

Laurel-2018.jpgThe Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner

It’s amazing how many options Print Service Providers have when it comes to business diversification. But perhaps the most risky and revolutionary is the move into bespoke apparel manufacturing. It’s risky because there is no hard evidence that consumers are willing to move en mass away from an environmentally hostile production chain model. This model is entirely built around bulk quantities of sourced materials turned into garments in huge volumes. The result is cheap and lovely clothes made from a variety of fibres, blends and fabrics. The shift to garment microfactories away from the bulk model enables on demand production of garments close to their points of purchase. But will this model really reshape the face of fashion?

Is paper doomed?

Mon, 21/03/2022 - 08:15

medium_laurel2015.jpgThe Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner

A belated welcome to 2022 and the year when technology makes possible the synthesising of paper using bacteria and carbon emissions. Not a joke. A company called LanzaTech has announced a deal with IndiTex, one of the world’s clothing giants, to develop a polyester fibre based on bugs and smoke. This story is probably of most interest to manufacturers and owners of digital textile printers. However the underlying technology has fascinating possibilities for substrates of all kinds.

Is Print on Demand Fashion a More Sustainable Model?

Mon, 07/03/2022 - 09:09

medium_2015_Laurel B.jpgThe Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner

Digital textile production technology developers Kornit Digital has recently published its 2020 Impact and Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) Report. It finds that the fashion business overproduces by about 30% and is responsible for 20% of global waste water per year. This makes the fashion and textile industries amongst the most polluting on the planet. These numbers are surely unacceptable in this day and age.

Kodak’s Sustainability Report

Mon, 21/02/2022 - 07:39

Laurel-2018.jpgThe Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner

A few years ago, it was tempting to write Kodak off as a spent force. And yet the 130 year old company is still here and its 4300 employees are collectively still making a difference. Not all of those people contribute directly to the graphics industry but amongst the companies many patents, 2500 are print related. Kodak recently published its sustainability report for 2020, covering 2018 to 2020. The most striking thing about this report is the reminder that sustainability is as much about a company’s survival as it is about the environment.

Sustainability begins at home

Mon, 07/02/2022 - 08:07

medium_laurel2015.jpgThe Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner

Sustainability is entering business peoples’ consciousnesses in such a way that they actually invest in it. The environment is slowly rising up the agendas of print service providers and suppliers alike, but it has to be said that the graphics industry has tended more to the green washing than the actual greening end of the spectrum of environmental initiatives. But recently we have seen more organisations investing in environmental sustainability. It’s not just good for the planet, ideally it is good for business. How well these ideas are implemented gives a measure of their commitment. Some are more ambitious than others.

Pages