s companies are increasingly embracing eco-friendly practices to minimize environmental impact and meet the expectations of an environmentally conscious market, various certifications have emerged to show customers that companies aren’t just talking the talk but walking the walk as well.

The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP) is an organization committed to promoting sustainable practices across the printing and graphics supply chain and related industries. Through its unique certification program, SGP is empowering companies to adopt sustainable processes beyond regulatory compliances and demonstrate transparency in their practices through comprehensive data collection.

Theresa Vanna, Chair of SGP and Print Market Specialist at Primex Corporation, provides insights into SGP’s certification program and how performance plastics companies fit into the picture.

You also have to create a sustainability committee that is cross-functional. It can’t just be management involved, it has to be the janitor and the lawn care team too, you have to get the buy-in of the entire organization.

Then there’s the measurements; we have a phenomenal tool which is very different than any certification program that’s out there, it’s called an Impact Tracker. With the Impact Tracker, all your documentation is stored in one place. We even create templates for companies that say ‘Where do we begin? How do we do this?’

Companies have to track air quality, water, energy use, compressed air, etc. The measurements are very robust because what we’re doing, and why the tracker is revolutionary, is because we’re charting carbon footprints.

In the tracker, all measurements are visible, it’s about transparency. That’s another thing that is different about SGP, we stress transparency. When you make a statement, you have to validate that statement with data. The tracker provides you with a central location to keep that data.

It takes two years for a facility to get certified because of the amount of documentation and data collection required. Then there’s the audit. The first audit is always on site and all documentation in the tracker is reviewed 30 days before the visit to ensure your plan is in place. Then the auditor will spend one or two days with you.

The audit process is pretty unique, we look at policies, procedures, waste management and we scrutinize the data. We look at everything, even what companies do for lawn care. It’s cool because when people start to see that, they get excited about it, and they get creative — we have one facility that collects rainwater and uses it for some of their horticultural processes.

In the in-person audit, if there’s corrective actions required, our auditors are great with helping companies work through them while they’re there. They don’t leave you to deal with them alone. Then, when you pass the audit, you’re certified.

It is an ongoing certification, so during the two-year period you have to complete what’s called a Continuous Improvement Project. Every year your organization has to set a new goal for improvement.

Some companies use SGP as a bouncing board into other certifications, like ISO, so we’re also looking at how documents in the tracker can be translated into formats for other certifications.

There’s also a part of the tracker that you can attach to your website as a dashboard. Miller Zell is a good example of a SGP Certified company using this feature. When you go into their lobby, they have their tracker dashboard on a big screen. The minute you walk in you know exactly, in real time, their energy use, water use and things like that.

You get the tracker the next day after you apply, and you have it for as long as you want to participate.

Q: Who can get certified? Are distributors eligible as well as manufacturers?

If you’re a distributor who is just taking product, relabeling it, then reselling it, then that’s not really a manufacturing process we would certify. However, if you’re a distributor who is also converting sheet — If you’re slitting, laminating or coating sheet, anything like that, you’re now processing it. Those are companies that we would like to work with to get certified.

I also recommend attaching yourself to organizations that offer support. We have what’s called a peer-to-peer group. The minute you apply for certification you are introduced to various members of our organization, some of which are certified facilities, and they become your mentors. They’re the ones that you can throw an email at or a text. You’re not alone in this journey, that’s the biggest thing.

The expenses are the labor and human capital investment, but the ROI that you see after is pretty phenomenal.

Plus, you may find that some of the things you’re already doing in the spirit of efficiencies are sustainable. You’re probably already looking at how your equipment is running, how much time, energy, people and footsteps are needed for production and calling it efficiencies, but if you take a step back it’s also sustainability. Efficiencies save some type of resource, whether it’s a human or a natural resource, it’s saving something — including money.

So, I say to people, ‘Don’t think that you’re going to start from scratch, you probably have already been doing a lot of things. Now you just need to create the discipline of charting and documenting what you’re doing.’

Now when you look at our board, we have around 20 people and five committees. We’re able to handle SGP’s growth without having to go out and hire an organization to manage us.

The other great, exciting change we’ve made is opening our certification to suppliers. So, if you’re supporting the graphic arts, you can become a certified supplier. This is where performance plastics companies can get involved. With that change Primex Corporation became SGP’s first certified supplier.

It’s very much like the printer certification — you’re not dealing with the nuts and bolts of printing, but you’re still looking at your air quality, compliance, health and safety, how you’re treating your employees, what you’re doing for your community, what you’re doing on your building and so on.

So, I think the biggest challenge is the legislation that we’re seeing coming in — and it’s coming in from all over.

Another challenge is economics. It really impacts sustainability because people have a mental concept that it costs green to be green. They don’t understand there’s an ROI. Yes, there’s an initial cost, but just look at the efficiencies and the time savings you gain. The economic challenge is a reason why SGP has kept our rates low, this year was the first time that we have ever raised our rates.

There’s also a lot of discussion happening on post-consumer recycled content and carbon footprints — not only tracking your carbon footprint with your process, but also going to your supplier and getting their carbon footprint.

I’ve also seen interesting technology coming forward for materials that can actually help you negate your some of the carbon footprint.

Green is a color, it’s not a journey. Sustainability is a journey.