MBC Final Project Patrick Gibbs May 17, 2007 University of St. Thomas Do Print Buyers See the Certified Forest Through the Trees?

Environmental Impact of Printing  Normally left environment up to printers  Used recycled papers and felt environmental  Eased conscience by attending seminars held by printers

 Full page ad in New York Times  One million catalogs a day  ForestEthics.org Global Campaign against Limited Brands

My conscience gets a wake up call

What is Certified Printing?  United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992  “Eco-Labeling” for forest industry  “Chain-of-Custody” for printers

How does “Chain-of-Custody” certification work?  Authorization  Onsite Audit  Records Review  Certification  Monitoring  Communication/promotion

Global initiative- non governmental Made up of 31 member countries, largest certification scheme Certification Organizations Global Initiative-non governmental Made up of foresters, loggers, sociologists and environmentalists U.S. initiative- non governmental Made up of non-industry and members of the American Forest and Paper Association in U.S. -voluntary membership Not-for -profit business association setting standards for consumers and business safety Voluntary membership

Questions  Did print buyers know about this?  Were they buying certified printing?  What were their impressions of certified printing?  Was limiting the environmental impact seen as a priority?

Are print buyers advocating for certified printing? Research Question

Methodology  Partnered with GLS- local printer  Paper survey with 20 questions  Mailed to 1691 print buyers from GLS customer base  278 returned for a 16% response rate

How familiar are you with forest sustainability, chain-of-custody and other environmental efforts?

Do you know if any of your printers have any of the following certifications?

How often does your company specify environmentally friendly printers for its projects?

If you knew a printer was certified would this influence your purchasing decision?

How likely are you to use a certified printer in the next six months?

Rank the following factors in your print purchasing decision. 1 most important, 6 least important. Buyers Buyers Quality 1 Price 2 Customer Service 3 Relationship w/ Sales Rep 4 Speed of printing 5 Environmental Impact 6

Are print buyers advocating for certified printing? NO Answer to research question

Conclusions  Print buyers overestimated what they knew about environmentally friendly printing  Print buyers know little about certification and were not largely influenced by it as yet  Environmental impact is not a concern for print buyers or their companies

Recommendations  Better marketing to customers by certified printers and better identification of customers  Better education for print buyers on marketing/economic value  More public pressure on the environmental impact of companies as a whole- not just main product

Thank You Questions?