Lecturer: * Dr. J.S. Small * Dr. M.A.H. Groen

Team Number: 1
Name: Michaelain Trimon ANR: 893225
Number of Words: 5701
Date: April 24th, 2014
Course: Sustainable Entrepreneurship 2013-2014

Lecturer: * Dr. J.S. Small * Dr. M.A.H. Groen

Team Number: 1
Name: Michaelain Trimon ANR: 893225
Number of Words: 5701
Date: April 24th, 2014
Course: Sustainable Entrepreneurship 2013-2014

“On our way to Sustainable Green Printing”
“On our way to Sustainable Green Printing”

Preface

This assignment is about a case study, which means the description of a situation regarding the development of a sustainable business. The case tells a story of how this particular business ended up where it is today. The context of this assignment will give a description of a situation regarding the development of a sustainable business. This case tells the story of how “Andi Druk” started evolving in sustainability and how the company is doing nowadays. Below I will describe the relevant information about the sustainable company.

Table of Contents Introduction 4 Section 1: Industry Background 5 1.1 Printing Industry background 5 1.2 Innovation in the printing industry 6 1.4 Government Regulation 7 1.5 Firm size 8 1.6 Trends 8 1.7 Sustainability in the printing industry 9 1.7.1 Cradle- to-cradle and fully sustainable 10 1.8 Opportunities and Challenges for the Sustainability Printing industry 12 1.8.1 Opportunities 12 1.8.2 Challenges 12 Section 2: Company Background 13 2.1 Company Overview 13 2.2 Environment 14 2.3 Services 15 Section 3: Competitors 17 Conclusion 18 Reference 20 Appendix 1: 22 Interview 26

Introduction “Andi Druk” is a printing industry, situated in Maastricht, The Netherland. The company is established on the market for almost 80 years and is specialized in graphic production and printing. During the interview with Mr. Rob Niesen (Commercial Manager) and Frank Alsof (Business Leader) of “Andi Druk”, they explained that the company is sustainable and offers sustainable products. They began with sustainability by means of certification, to be more quality conscious and saw sustainability as a vision. The main challenge right now for the company is that they want to move beyond sustainable, the company wants to take it a step further by going fully cradle-to-cradle or by being a corporate social sustainable company, to standardize or not or by having a company certification or product specific certification.

Section 1: Industry Background
1.1 Printing Industry background

The printing industry has a long history. Nobody has ever thought that printing would become an important means on the market due to technology. Printing is considered to be one of the most significant inventions that have happened, because it has made it possible for companies to produce and advertise via books, magazines, flyers, newspaper and other reading materials at large amount for a large group of people. Printing was developed based on the principles of printing, and over the years many changes has occurred in the printing industry to meet people needs.
The first evidence found of printing was in the 2nd century, where Chinese made used of wooden blocks to transmit images on silk. In the 4th century Romanian practiced woodblock printing on cloth. The first printing on paper was conducted in the 7th century by Chinese, in which they produce their first printed book. Around the year 1040, the first movable printer was invented of clay by Pi Sheng in China, but at that time it was not really successful, because the printer broke easily. Afterwards a metal movable printing device was created by Koreans in the 13th century. In the 15th century, a number of European researchers started to create the perfect movable metal printing device, but Mr. Johannes Gutenberg of Germany, who was a former goldsmith, was the first to be successful in creating a metal printing device that has developed the printing industry (Overnight prints).
A number of printing companies has increased in Europe due to Mr. Gutenberg’s printer device. Nevertheless, in that time there was a high demand for printed materials, due that the need for printing increased. Over the years other researchers also invented different printing devices, such as in the year of 1800 (Overnight prints); Mr. Earl Stanhope from England produced a device that printed much cleaner and in colour. As it is for the printing industry in the Netherlands, the companies are really advanced when it comes to technology and whereby the Dutch Market is known to be one of the top in the printing industry in the European market.
As we stand for today, the printing industry has grown really fast and due to technology printings are done via the use of computers. Modern printing devices made it possible to print high quality products much faster compered to in the past. Technology has made it possible to offer customers the possibility to print and to deliver printed materials in a short amount of time.

1.2 Innovation in the printing industry
Innovation can have different meaning, but innovating is bringing new ideas, or to meet new requirements or by adapting products to customer needs. You can have different types of innovation some examples may be, the products, process, service or procedure.
Innovation is also an important element to take into consideration when “going green”. As it for the Dutch market in the printing industry, companies have many possibilities in innovation and creation potential to exploit. There is continuous innovation in technology that could help companies reduce cost and also to help protect the environment. One of the latest technologies in the printing industry was digital printing. This innovation had helped to create a new market and attract new customers. Due that in the last years digital has taken control over the market, this has helped companies increased productivity and reduced cost.
For the upcoming years researchers are considering that 3D printing will have a big impact on the printing industry, especially on the Dutch market. The 3D Printing will offer new technologies, applications and approach (GC worldbiz). This new printing idea will expand the use of technology by helping to reduce hardware and materials cost. This will enable the printing manufactures to have better and more final products and will help by developing expansions into new areas for application.
Another innovation for the printing industry was the development of waterless printing. The meaning of Waterless printing is that it is an offset lithographic printing. The offset lithographic printing is a system that printing industries uses as a printing technique. The inked image will be located from a plate to a rubber blanket and then it will be transferred to the printing surface. This process is well known for the printing industry because it helps to remove the water used in printing.
Due to innovation, the creation of different types of paper materials also had helped printing companies to reduce cost and increase productivity. Also one of the latest innovations that companies are using recently is the possibility to directly order form a printing industry which has helped companies to increase productivity and let companies be more efficient in time management.
1.4 Government Regulation
Due to demand for corporate social responsibility (CSR) around the globe, most companies on the Dutch market are also switching there processes and are taking into consideration the effects of their operational management on people, the environment and the society. The activities of CSR are different depending on the type of industry. In this case the type of industry is the printing industry which has different standards and guidelines to take into consideration and there are several implications to take into account, this will take the company time and money, but over the long run it will help companies achieve their ultimate goal which is doing well for the society.
There are some important certifications to take into consideration when printing companies wants to implement CSR. The first certification to take into consideration is the ISO 9001. This certification will help printing industries to have important improvements in their productivity, by having an increase in customer satisfaction and to have a decrease in spoilage and waste. This certification will help printing industries to support their company and to have an industry-wide reputation by being more reliable (ISO Certification for the Print Industry) and to deliver high volume of print materials and that the qualities of products are continuously improved (9001) .
The effect on the environment is very important nowadays that is why the ISO 14001 is also another important certification for the printing industry. This certification will help printing industries to meet the expectations of corporate clients, especially when new work and new opportunities presents. If companies have an effective management system for ISO 14001, it will be easier for companies to recognize environmental performance, for example to reduce the waste to landfill, to eliminate or to have safer disposal solvents, reduce toxic or harmful products, recycling (such as paper) or to reduce energy consumption (ISO Certification for the Print Industry). Not only companies have to take into consideration their processes but also quality plays an important role by using new technologies. So, the ISO 14001 focuses on controlling the impact of the environment and to improve environmental performance constantly (ISO 14001).
The Forest Stewardship Council Label (FSC) label is also important to take into consideration when printing industries apply sustainability. The FSC is a non-profit organization which its main goal is to help protect and manage forest of the world more responsibly. The FSC label support companies and customers to make better choices when buying forest products.
A certification that printing industries may consider is the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP). This program certifies printers for the specific friendly standards of sustainability and environmentally.
To conclude, other certification that printing industries can take into consideration is the ISO 12647 (ISO 12647). The ISO 12647 is especially for printing industries, which defines the conditions for printing for different processes that is used for the graphic arts businesses (Inergraf) .
1.5 Firm size

There are about 121,000 printing companies in the 28 European member states and these companies have around 714,000 employees. The printing industry in Europe consists mostly of small enterprises and each printing company’s employs 20 persons (Intergraf).
As it is for the Dutch market, the printing industry consists mostly of small companies and approximately 80% of companies have about10 employees. As it is for the printing process, 70% of the employees works only with printing and around 15% of the employees are involved to prepare printing, and the other 15% are responsible for the graphic (Gateway Baltic) .
1.6 Trends

Trends in the printing industry have been really important over the last years. One of the most important trends for the printing industry is the internet (watch, 2010) which defines the future of the printing industry. In the past, most of the printing work was done via press, but nowadays with the change in the world’s technology it has made it easier for printing industries to supply their customers in a faster way.

As it is for the Dutch market, the trend for the printing industry is facing a slowdown. This has caused that many local companies are reevaluating their business model. The market structure has led to a decrease on demand for printing services and also foreign companies who has emerge in the Netherlands has lead printing companies to reduce cost and price.

There was a 5.3 % decrease in sales for 2010 and for 2011 a decrease of 2%. For the year of 2012 the impact was much bigger because sales have fallen even harder. Since 2009, internal production has been decreasing in all the segments of the product. The value of the production of books has been decreasing since 2009 by 42.6% and was equaled to 184.3 EUR million. As it is for the newspapers and journals, they also suffered a decrease in the value of production by 36.4% that equaled to 299.8 EUR million (Kaselyte, 2013). The main cause for this problem is due that that the Dutch economy in general is facing a slowdown is affecting the printing industry and because there is less demand for advertising.
For printing companies to survive in the Dutch market, printing companies are striving to increase or expand their services and by increasing their market share via merger and acquisitions. This was caused do that there are a lot of competition from international companies and there is a small demand for printing service.
1.7 Sustainability in the printing industry

In the last few years sustainable has become an important topic for every business around the globe. Most industries would like to “go green” in order to protect the environment in every possible way. Sustainability can refer to numerous things, but one of the latest topics in sustainability is environmental sustainability. To give a better understanding is how products or processes can have an impact on the environment and how we can help to reduce these impacts.
As it is for the printing industry, sustainability has become a topic of interest due that they are receiving massive demands from customer, environmental groups, consumers, investment firms and government agencies who want to go sustainable. The printing industry is under the pressure by these groups to produce products that uses sustainable manufacturing process. The definition of sustainable green printing is defined as an integration of business that offers environmental protection and corporate social responsibility, by also incorporating employee’s health and safety, by trying to use energy, renewable resources and recycling in a more efficient way (Monteleone, 2012).
In order to become a sustainable printing industry, the company must take into consideration various environmental aspects, such as health, safety and labor regulations and not to forget the most important aspects when going green which are the products the company uses, the processes of printing and activities that are taking place at a printing operation (building, grounds, maintenance, employees and transportation). In this case “Andi Druk” considers most of these aspects.
As mentioned when going green companies has to consider different aspects. In this case product is an important means when going green. The design phase of products are very important to deliberate with customers; here you can give customers important information about sustainable products, in order the produce products in a more efficient way.
Process is another important aspect when going green. Companies should consider the 3 “R”s which are the Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle in order to eliminate production wastes. This will guide the companies to reduce waste cost and to be more aware of the resources available when processing products. Also companies should consider integrating in health, safety and environmental aspects for equipment, material purchase and utilization. Companies in the printing industry should consider minimizing the use of energy in the print process. Other important aspects to consider during printing process is to have a professional personnel to know how to handle the printing equipment, the use of ink (to know how to make use of ink, when to change it or not) and other printing compounds in order to minimize waste and exposure.
1.7.1 Cradle- to-cradle and fully sustainable
Cradle -to -Cradle process can bring a new era to the market for the printing industry. Cradle to cradle has the possibility to solve different problems in the printing industry that companies may not know about. Some of the problems that the printing industries may encounter are that products are not always 100% recyclable. Most of us know about recycling of paper. But in the case of a printing industry this is different, because only parts of the recycled paper can be recovered in the process. At this point in time the toxic of this process are being burned as waste products or recycled. This issue can bring problem over the long run due that some valuable materials can be lost during the process and some materials may return to its natural cycle .A solution for this problem in the cradle to cradle process can be, when conducting the printing process try to use components that are safe for the biological cycle. In order to reach the goal is that the deinking sludge will no longer be waste but will turn into food. To give an example, the printing products can help contribute to make the ground more fertile and to format humus where CO2 can be stored at the same time.
Another problem can be that some printing products cannot be recycled. The problem arises when printing companies would like to recycle paper, but these papers have tiny digital printed elements that are difficult to be recycled. This can cost printing industries a lot of euros if they do not take these things into consideration. It can damage our health and also our quality of life, because in the past they found that old printing inks from packaging food have passed into food. For this reason if printing companies implement the cradle- to- cradle this can help reduce these problems. That is why it is very important that printing industries try to use paper of quality and try to use printing inks that can be recycled in the future. In the cradle –to- cradle process printing products should contain fewer chemicals that can affect employees in the production area. That is why the cradle- to- cradle will assure that every product and materials used are not only safe for the employees but also for customers.
On the other hand printing industries can also go full sustainable. Sustainability can refer to many things, but sustainability has the ability in which it can operate to meet present needs as long as it can provide future needs and future generations. When it comes to sustainable manufacturing leads to describe a better social, environment and resource-responsible approach as it is for manufacturing. Sustainable means more that using recycling paper and ink or other resources that is needed to use during printing. When going sustainable it is a process that needs continuous improvement within its operation.

1.8 Opportunities and Challenges for the Sustainability Printing industry 1.8.1 Opportunities

Most companies around the globe are switching to sustainability. As most companies are struggling to be more sustainable and environmental friendly, printing industries are not staying behind, they all well ahead in this aspect. But when going sustainable, companies may encounter themselves with opportunities and challenges that can affect the company.
Sustainability can have a positive impact on every business who wants to go sustainable. One of the opportunities is that company will have the opportunity to cut cost. Some companies in the United States such as Walmart, Coca-Cola and Nike have already taken the green initiative to their advantage, which are considered as major buyers of printed products and they want sustainability throughout their supply chain.
Businesses in the Netherlands are also blooming in the area of sustainability. Brand names such as Philips, Air France-KLM and Unilever are on their way to sustainability. Printing industries in the Netherlands will soon feel the pressure to go green. That is why “Andi Druk” took this opportunity and started their way to sustainable. By being one of the few sustainable printing industries in the Netherlands, “Andi Druk” can make use of this opportunity to grow in the printing industry.
Another opportunity for the printing industries is when going sustainable companies can have new market opportunities. Due that sustainability is becoming an important means of the economic marketplace; you can attract more consumers in this market area, by demonstrating the use of process and materials that are environmental friendly with the overall use of sustainability.
1.8.2 Challenges
For the past years the printing industry has encounter themselves with different challenges. Some of the challenges for the printing industries are trends in consumer printing, new technology and the speed of change, environmental concerns and the global economy.
One of the most difficult challenges for the printing industries is consumer spending. This is due that customers prefer to buy online and not to shop from street retail shopping. This has a major effect due that companies will invest less in advertisement, for example by advertising in catalogues, magazines or newspaper. Companies will do more advertising online which involves no printing. The introduction of new technologies and the speed of change have also had an impact on the printing industry and will continue to be a major challenge for the coming years.
The internet (World Wide Web) has introduced customers to digital printing. Technology changed customers’ mind, in which customers expect better products and services for a lower price. Nowadays large companies around the globe are making use of social media to deliver information. The access for online reading is also becoming more popular. Customers can read their books anywhere from their iPad. The economy also impacts on the printing industry in a number of other ways. Because of the economic condition, this can lead that companies will advertise less. This will also lead that printing industries will have few orders. Rising cost is also another issue for the printing industry. The rising cost of raw materials is one of the issues for the printing industry.
Printing Ink
One of the main challenges of every printing company that wants to go sustainable or cradle-to-cradle is the ink. The ink is very important if a company wants to adapt cradle-to-cradle. During the interview with Mr. Rob Niesen and Mr. Frank Alofs., they explained that they do not have an ink that is environmentally friendly. The ink that they are now using, is not in the product but in the production process itself, it is a chemical component, in which is difficult because you do not receive the certification of the cradle-to-cradle and it goes back to the original basis to the commodity or no chemical process. Some examples of environmental ink are VOC (volatile-organic compound) inks and UV (ultraviolet)-curing inks. Ultraviolet-curing ink has been considered as being “green” since it content contains less pollutant for the environment. It will not be problem for “Andi Druk” to change the ink, due that their machinery can work with these types of inks. Section 2: Company Background
2.1 Company Overview

As mentioned in the introduction “Anti Druk” exists for almost 80 years in the printing industry. They are specialized in the area of graphic production and printing. “Andi Druk” wants to satisfy each customer’s needs, by offering the best quality of products and services. For this reason they offer their customers with direct contact with personnel, which are supported by a dedicated team of specialist. The goal of this team is to inform, guide and to fulfill the wishes of each customer, by offering them posters to magazines, layout design and competitive prices.
2.2 Environment

Sustainability is becoming an important means in most industries around the globe, especially for the printing industry; they do not only want to make a positive change for the environment, but to also have a healthy and a safety environment for employees. That is why “Andi Druk” made sustainability and corporate social responsibility as their main priority. One of their main challenges is that they want to be more aware of the resources that they have available for their products.
They see the environment as their main responsibility. For this reason “Andi Druk has its own environmental policy. This policy focuses to care for the nature and its resources, to have respect for people, to care for community and environment which are considered as essentials elements of sustainability. This policy is not only important for all external stakeholders but also for the employees of “Andi Druk”. Employees can find the policy in the company’s manual. “Andi Druk” consider its employees as an important asset for their company. The employees are well known as the drive of the organization. The company put much attention to focus on and to make room for personal growth and development. A safe working environment, a pleasant working space and participation in the organization is what “Andi Druk” has to offer to employees. The board of “Andi Druk believes that when they do not care enough for quality, environment or safety continuity they will put more effort to contribute with the role in society. “Andi Druk” wants to reach continues improvements concerning their environmental performance. The way they do this is through their environmental objectives. They also have a Business Emergency Plan in case of fire or any other emergency that can occur.
When purchasing new machineries and vehicles “Andi Druk always put its focus on the environmental aspects and impacts. Some examples are purchasing of hybrid cars, cradle to cradle machines and less kilowatt usage of machines.
As of July 2009, “Andi Druk” carries the FSC label. This label is very important, because it is supported by all major environmental and development organizations and the (international) businesses. The FSC label ensures that the forest, for both tropical and non-tropical, are managed by the forest owners well, because these woods and woods products are certified and can be tracked from the forest of origin through supply chain. “Andi Druk is also ISO 9001 certified. They also implemented the ISO 14001, in order to help “Andi druk” minimize its operations (processes) which may have a negative impact on the environment, which can have controversial changes on air, water, or land; it must accomplish the applicable laws, regulations, and other requirements that are concerned with the environment, and to constantly improve the above mentioned requirements. These are challenges that “Andi Druk” is happy to take into their company and on the environment.
2.3 Services

For customers the end product is very important. Most of the customers of “Andi Druk” are companies established in the Netherlands who order wholesale production. “Andi Druk” serves its customers several printing services. Most customers are not very aware that “Andi Druk” offers sustainable printing, but during the personal meeting with customers, “Andi Druk gives detailed information about sustainable printing. The customer is in total liberty to choose whether to go sustainable or not. Below I will give a brief explanation of the services that “Andi Druk” has to offer (www.andidruk.nl).
One of “Andi Druk” most used service is offset. This service focuses on giving customers the best quality on printing and sustainability. With offset printing the company means that this is a printing technique that is used to transfer inked images (offset) from plate to rubber blanket, then to printing surface. The production of this service starts from prepress to post-press that is fully equipped to help reduce environmental impact. After several years “Andi Druk” has specialized in full color printing. This service offers customers a highly and a sophisticated four-color press for several end products such as house styles, flyers, brochures, magazines annual reports or books.
“Andi Druk” considers themselves as professionals when it comes to graphic design. They strive each day to be more aware of the resources that they use in their products in order to protect the environment whenever it is possible. That is why digital printing is another service that “Andi Druk” has to offer. They try to use this service as much as possible. The company offers an advanced and a high quality of equipment when it comes to digital printing. This service is completely different comparing it to the offset printing. This service is less harmful for the environment and makes ordering cheaper. When using this service it makes ordering quickly and customers will receive their order on time, by this it will help reduce unnecessary stocks and makes application more flexible. If any changes are necessary to documents this can be done quickly and without any problem. Products such as posters, flyers, cards and tickets can be fully personalized by “Andi Druk”. Other products such as brochures, books, essays or calendars can be fully customized, printed and digitalized.

Besides offset and digital printing another service of “Andi Druk” is E-commerce. Most companies nowadays are doing business electronically. That is why “Andi Druk” makes use of this service in order to make the lives of their customers easier, by giving customers the possibility to make orders online more quickly and easily. “Andi Druk” is a progressive organization that helps their clients to have a better communication with their target audiences. In order to help customers to be printing interactive, “Andi Druk” offers newsletter. “Andi Druk” gives customer the possibility to prepare and send newsletter for them. Customers will only need to provide “Andi Druk” with an updated database with email addresses, texts and images. “Andi Druk” will than make sure that the digital newsletter will be send on a desired date and time to customer mailbox. If customers want to have a detailed analysis of newsletter this can be done by “Andi Druk” for a small fee. “Andi Druk” can give extra advice to bring customers communication optimally, by giving them an offline (print / printed) communication, in addition to a digital newsletter.

Last but not least interactive printing is another service of “Andi Druk”. This service is a contact point of online interactive service and print solutions. Some interactive solutions are QR- codes which is a trademark for example some type of barcode, “Digimarc Code” which is a technology that enables the possibility to insert information into different forms such as audio, video, printed material and “Layars” which is a mobile service that offers interactive printing, in order to help reduce the gap between printing and the digital world.

Section 3: Competitors
“Andi Druk” strives each day to stay ahead on the market compared to their competitors. During the interview with Mr. Niesen , he explained that they consider themselves unique on the market due that competitors focuses a lot on other things and at the end customers does not understand what is the goal of the company and the products and services that they have to offer. As it is for “Andi Druk” they try to put more emphasizes on the products and services, and always inform their customers what is best for them.

During the interview with Mr. Rob Niesen and Mr. Frank Alofs we could conclude that “Andi Druk” has a fair competition in the sustainable printing industry. The company sees sustainability as an opportunity, because right now there is little supply but on the other hand a larger demand and more and more large companies are becoming increasingly concerned with cradle- to-cradle and sustainability. But the company does not only focus on sustainability, they also consider in growing in other areas, such as broadening their services or just narrowing packaging service. But what gives the company an edge compared to other competitors is that they try to adapt at the beginning of each year and try to increase their goals a little higher each year. The goal of “Andi Druk” is the environmental objectives. Due that the company is ISO14001 certificate they have to continuously improve.

When it comes to service “Andi Druk” also strives to compete with competitors. The difference between “Andi Druk” and competitors is that despite the fact that “Andi Druk” cannot always satisfy their customers’ needs, because of shortage on some services such as banners, the company still tries to resolve this problem by helping customers via third parties. Their services are also very transparent, as their main goal is to deliver graphic products. “Andi Druk” has competing programs such as offering the customer the possibility to do everything online. The company has five important pillars which is regular printing in which is considered to be one of the strongest point compared to competitors.

Compared to international competitors “Andi Druk” has still some improvements to do. In Austria there is a printing industry that already offers their customers cradle- to- cradle products. Their printing inks are sustainable and do not pollute the environment. “Andi Druk: could consider the use this company process as an example to improve their business process to be more sustainable.
Conclusion

To conclude, we have seen that over the years the printing industry has revolutionized really fast due to technology. Modern printing devices have made it possible for companies to offer high quality products in a short amount of time. Innovation is also an important element to take into consideration when “going green”. As it for the Dutch market in the printing industry, companies have many possibilities in innovation and creation potential to exploit. Innovation such as digital printing has helped many industries to create new markets and to attract more customers. As it is for the printing industry in the Dutch market, they are facing a slowdown which makes it difficult for the printing industries to grow. When it comes to sustainability there are many opportunities and challenges that printing industries can take into consideration.

As it is for “Andi Druk” they are on the right path to sustainability. They started as simple printing industry and they are slowly changing their process to become a more sustainable printing company. “Andi Druk” wants to become a market leader by not only being a regular printing company but also by being a sustainable printing industry. As mentioned in the introduction the main challenge right now for the company is that they want to move beyond sustainable, the company wants to take it a step further by going fully cradle-to-cradle or by being a corporate social sustainable company, to standardize or not or by having a company certification or product specific certification.

In order to choose whether “Andi Druk” needs to adapt cradle-to-cradle or by continuing being a corporate social sustainability depends on the company itself. The company needs to know what they want to achieve in the future and what their primary goals are. By choosing cradle-to-cradle the company needs adapts its operation especially when it comes to the ink. This is really the last component that does make it to cradle- to-cradle for “Andi Druk”, because they already offer FSC paper and also offer several products that are already sustainable. At this moment “Andi Druk” is already applying different certification in their portfolio to meet the expectations of sustainability. By choosing whether to have a product certification or company certification depends on what suits “Andi Druk” best for its company’s profile. To standardize or not depends what “Andi Druk” wants to achieve in the future. By applying standardization it can help the company takes advantages of quality, safety and compatibility. But on the other hand “Andi Druk” has several products in its portfolio which can make it difficult to standardize.

The key question remain: what are the reasons for “Andi Druk” to become a sustainable company and what do they want to achieve by applying cradle-to-cradle or by being a fully sustainable company? It all depends if “Andi Druk” wants to apply sustainability to help the environment or to do it just to become a market leader and to benefit from the cost that this may imply.

In other words going sustainable is important, because all the choices that we make today may have consequences for our future, that is why “Andi Druk” should consider on moving to a greater sustainability.

Reference

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Srandesen, A. B. (2010). The cradle-to-cradle concept, is it always sustainable. watch, e. (2010, June 29). Printing Industry Trends. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from econmy watch: http://economywatch.com/world-industries/printing/trends.html www.andidruk.nl. (n.d.). Andi Druk. Retrieved from Andi Druk: http://www.andidruk.com

Appendix 1: Fundamentals of the environmental policy are: Regarding all the relevant and environmental legislation and regulations a large part of the obligations can be found in the Activities Decree of “Andi Druk”. Below you can find the environmental policy that the employee of “Andi Druk” uses. * The specific focus on measures to reduce the environmental impact, we are thinking of:
Reduction of the use of natural energy sources; reducing our waste. * Controlling the main environmental aspects within “Andi Druk”; * Reducing the effects of their environmental aspects.

Figure [ 1 ]: Waterless Printing Process

Figure [ 2 ]: Number of graphic companies 2010

Figure [ 3 ]: Employment in the graphic industry, 2010

Figure [ 4 ]: Production of printed items in the Netherlands

Figure [ 5 ]: Cradle to Cradle process

Interview

Part 1
Translation from Dutch to English -> Interview March 6th, 2014
Interviewees:
* Rob Niesen, Commercial Manager * Frank Alsof, Business Leader

SR: To start with our interview, we will ask 10 questions and I hope one of you could help us and give us a response to our questions. To start with a very basic question, you just told me about the exhibition and it reminded me about the question "why now exactly “Andi Druk” wants to produce sustainable?" This is to start the interview with a very basic question.

RN: I think it's from our certification that we have started with sustainability, let’s say, perhaps the last step to a fully sustainable process. Uhm .. It is also a bit in our genes, quality conscious here.

FO: The vision.

RN: Yup, the company stills deals with it in the most responsible way. That phrase on the one hand, the production method, but also in how we interact with the staff. For example, the distance of the labor market that we arrange, we hesitate to do so. We are doing that now for example for cleaning: we are not working with a commercial organization, which we do with an ennobled SW [social work] company.

SR: Hmm yes.

RN: The cleaning is just as good. In this case, you put people in a distance to the labor market. And yes, from that perspective we find this step, which lies mainly in the production process, an important one.

SR: Hmm yes.

RN: Aside from the fact that it is also a commercial consideration, we still try to keep ahead of on the market, because yes .. even there we are well known for, we also have some lead compared to the rest of our colleagues.

SR: Okay, that's good to hear; you say that in order to remain on the market, can only happen by being sustainable?

RN: No, that is one of the opportunities we see right now, because there is just too little supply but on the other hand you have a lot of demand. But it does not have to be only sustainable; you can consider growing in all other fronts. Broadening your services, or just narrowing your services package.

SR : Yes .

RN : Because something that we can currently say very clearly on the market is, which may sound corny , " we are a printing company but then everyone knows immediately what we are talking about”.

SR: mm Mhm , mhm mm .

RN: And all of our colleagues who are now ' graphical media specialist , or I do not know how they all call themselves, and who at the same time works as marketing communications agency, and advertising and concept agency and media specialist. We do not use those names.
SR: Yes.

RN: We are still aware that we are printing company

SR: Yes.

RN: And yes, hence you have, right now, we actually have a unique position in the market. And that may sound very strange, but that's because the others just do lots of other things that people at one point saying "yeah, you know, I do not know.

SR: What do you do well exactly.

RN: I do not quite exactly understand what you are doing now, so to speak."

SR: Yes, yes , yes, OK.

RN : And we do that kind of stuff too but with partners . That's the difference between “Andi Druk” and our colleagues. So at a time when a company is: "Gosh , do you have a banner for me? "I say: "No. But I can arrange it for you.

SR: OK

RN: "I can give you the number of the party in which we can help you arrange the problem, and then you I can call them themselves and we can help with all the difficult questions. Or I adjust it for you. But then i have to put something on top.

SR: Yes.

RN: “Because I have to maintain records, billing, and so on.”

SR: Bright, clear. And when you say you are “pure printing”, we still call it " printing”, compared to competitors that perhaps has a more stylish garb , or do whatever to spice up , how does that vision fits in with the service, what is the big difference ?

RN: The service is very transparent with us. We finally deliver graphics products. Our competing programs, such as offering customers the possibility that they can do everything at once from our website or who knows what. We are not going to burn our fingers. You know, we just say "we do so in cooperation with other parties." We just have five pillars in our company, where we include scissors print, so to speak. And among those five pillars, say, customers can make their order. And at the moment you clearly tell your customers, then they know where they can go for.

SR: Yes, yes, yes. Clear. That can. I can very well understand. And if you look at….

RN : And in that story , as we see more and more , because ultimately, this story began , is that we find more and more that companies are increasingly concerned with cradle- to-cradle , sustainability , uhh .. how you want to call it. From Houtem is a very good example. Who got in touch with us, that he wanted to change its printing company. But can you then provide cradle- to-cradle printing. That would be for us pricy but for them it is not important anymore. "Of course price is still important but that’s okay to spend a dime more for the work, at the end of the ride.

SR : Yes , yes, yes . Clear. And the five pillars , where .. how do I tell?]

RN: That’s just regular printing, so you're talking about stationary, so that's letterhead, envelopes, name cards and so on. Then your promotional printing, magazines, brochures, flyers, posters. Well, you name it you have it. Technical press, which are especially manuals, technical manuals or medical manuals. You’ve personalized printing, as an example, the calls for the ladies for population, for breast cancer, that sort of thing. Whether for a large chain here in the South we do personalized mailings. So that’s in that sport. Then you say, but our fifth branch, which is special products, and then you have the (show example), books about this stuff, calendars, things you see standing there (pointing for example), packaging for Amstel or indexes. That is really a bit of our special products, so to speak. And yes, you might end up a lot under scissors, huh.

RN: This is offset, yes. But we have indeed. We have two production processes in our company. We have digital and offset and two manufacturing processes that we combine quite often for customers , say , in a hybrid workflow . It may well be that we uh .. you will also see immediately below that “Bulls” for example, is a one of the biggest customer of ours , we do offset the business cards and prepare , because they have a very specific color orange in their logo, and at the last minute we digitally do the printing of the name and address.

SR : OK , clear .

RN : And that kind of thing , what Frank also just said that product lines , say , we need to look it straight in , I think , how can we define a product line that we can get certified cradle-to -cradle . And is it indeed a stationary product line, or is that a total package of five pillars. Yes, that is something we are still searching for.

SR: OK. And sustainability of “Andi Druk”, that is certainly there, but do you recognize that market?

RN: I think right now our certifications we have ISO 9001, ISO14001 and FSC.

SR: And a customer who has no knowledge of?

RN: Yes, it is therefore up to us, the challenge is to advise him. And that is, if you look, say, those figures I think you have it (looking at Frank) ready, what we are FSC annually printing.

FO: 70% of all products we manufacture and supply is already produced on FSC certified paper lines. And I think it does have a fairly large share of the market on FSC nowadays. Both in the timber industry, as well as from the paper industry. And we may also therefore be logo certified to produce the logo on the products. And that is only possible if you're being FSC certified as an organization.

SR: How do you bring out all the information all at once, for example, customer first interview?

RN: That's why we have deliberately put it on the visits cards. Starting from there, you can make at that moment a conversation about it. So you need to show it. That's what we say to customers; at the moment that we do FSC printing please note that tree on your busy work, because it allows you to show your customers that you have thought about it. And that is of course for cradle- to-cradle. On the moment that you can show them on the printing, in other words, you can guide your customers around your own product that creates a greater value. It cannot be otherwise.

SR: How can you compete with competitors? How big is the percentage (of FSC printing)?

FO: I believe that our percentage is relatively high compared to our competitors. Of course I do not know, but I think so, because we are very aware within our organization.

SR: How can you conduct that? Where am I supposed to think?

FO: By our basic, which are surely the environmental objectives. We try to adapt at the beginning of each year and you try to increase our goals a little higher each year.

SR: And is that characteristics of “Andi Druk”, or is that from the law?

FO: That comes from the ISO 14001 standard.

RN: You got to continuously improve.

FO: Yes, exactly. You have your basic policy and an attached x number of goals, in this case environmental objectives, and then the goal is to improve year after year. You are always improving.

SR: I think that's an intensive process, to keep it constantly in mind.

RN: That is also a matter of good facilitation. When we do intakes around our product, around a final product, the question always comes up by default, "Gosh, do you want the FSC paper yes or no, and do you want the logo on it, yes or no? “ So the question really comes standard in an initial offer back. We are also working on a piece of standardization, because whether you or your neighbor now ordered 250 business cards that do not make that much enough. At the time that we have standardized on FSC paper, just very hard sayings, then you have no choice as a customer. We then determine for it you. And the beauty is, it does not necessarily have to be expensive. It's a bit of extra that you get, but you do not have to pay extra.

SR: I find it interesting that you say that, "it does not necessarily have to be expensive." When I say "sustainability is disabled", how would you go in there? .... I see Frank though no shaking.

FO: No, no. Certainly not. If I translate it to your target audience that would have the need to it. Suppose you are being an entrepreneur that would like to bring the appearance of your products, let cradle- to-cradle than 5 % more expensive, yes....

RN: .No that is not a handicap.

FO: Then I do not think of it anymore. If you had no interest in, then you probably already sat as not being in favor of the other side of the table. I think. I mean, it says something about the organization as a whole. It has to do with your image.

RN: It is very strange as you might recall that by “Shell”. If you would recall for Shell "we have cradle-to - cradle" print, then yes, they really have no turd on. No more polluting. But if you would call that " From a Houtem ' and that we have therefore probed by a number of companies who say " yes guys, if you can, then we are quite prepared to pay for something more. “That course should not prejudge the scuppers; it should not be the printing that makes it twice expensive. This is the opposite. If you mean with disabilities, is not it, it is 50 or 100 % more expensive than it is now, then it might be a handicap yes. But the estimate that we have now, that this is not the case, it is 5 or 10 % where Frank is talking about now. So yeah, you know, I think it is doable. Look, we have, of course, if you look at our production process and look at the cost structure, a large portion of our cost structure is staff + machines and other section is materials. So there you have a certain ratio, the staff is not expensive when you cradle- to-cradle certified. So there is no difference in cost compared to the traditional process. The only difference that could sit in the front seat is the purchase of those materials. Paper is not a problem, because paper is cradle-to -cradle proof 'so as to say because you have FSC paper, so therefore said cradle- to-cradle (the organization) is "yes, you know I think its fine.” If you can do some further cradle- to-cradle paper then that's even better, but then that is not here yet, so you cannot yet produce. The only thing you have left to variables is the ink. This is really the last component that does not make cradle- to-cradle. Of this you can imagine that cradle- to-cradle certified ink is more expensive than the ink we have now.

FO: But that is a fraction of the components that determine price.

RN: Thus maybe 5 or 10% of our cost price. On the moment 10% or 20% you have to pay more, it has effect on the sales price of 5 %.
SR: What does it takes to the client to decide to take the deal or not?
RN: On the moment no more price, by all means.
SR: By all means no more prices, and what does give that decisive? And I’m not talking about customers that have sustainability, I just talking about the generic customer who finds it interesting but not necessarily decisive.
RN: Yes, but the question is if you can offer it to the clients, or that you are going to offer the regular printing, what is the commercial use, say for the customer to choose cradle-to-cradle printing if the client has no vision for it? It is for that very few hundred companies that there are already doing in the Netherlands, let’s say, to which to operate. Look if you have parties like Philips, that is involved, uh Desso carpet, you know, those kind of parties if you can handle it, they are able to pay 5% or 10% extra. But on the moment that you to the company Cofely, they are not sustainable involved, and then you are not going to offer cradle-to-cradle.
FO: We are involved? You are always in that group of the leaders, and so you want still being like that as a company, in this case “Andi Druk”, yes, we want to continue to belong being leaders. Also in this area.
SR: I can well imagine. Therefore just focus on “you don’t see it as a handicap” I can imagine the deals that can go wrong on the fact that we are 5% or 10% expensive, through the sustainable character.
RN: Not to those companies, that sustainability wants to carry. I don’t believe that. They have the same on their side. The product of Van Houten, is a nice example, we have there good contacts, I know the director very good: they have one product line, the “Satino Black”, cradle-to-cradle certified, is the same toilet paper as the regular “Satino”. But more 30% on the sell side. So they do exactly the same to their clients. They pay it as well.
FO: It is a bit of showing off.
RN: It is a bit of showing off and still marketing. But it is well founded, and there is something behind. The toilet paper, cradle-to-cradle, comes from other rolls than the normal one. There are some millions in investing, in this case by Van Houten, to acquire that product. But after all the toilet paper, if you out it together, you don’t see any difference, while it is a cradle-to-cradle certification, while the other is not. So you can ask for the other one 30% more, say he on that moment and then he gets paid for it. And the best that you can see is that meanwhile they went further throughout sustainability that they say “if you that toilet roll or those tissues, then there are some instruments that belong: a toilet roll holder, tissue pack and perhaps an entire arrangement of a toilet. Well so far they go in the meantime, they sit there and say, Sphinx of “dude, we take your tiles that are cradle-to-cradle, along in our renovation we do with clients, we make a Santino Black toilets of. We hang out a tile, so that the customers who comes to us, is urinating on a cradle-to-cradle certified toilet.” That kind of stuff, then go to the marketing play. So you can ask for more, that’s for sure.
SR: Rob, you just came from a customer conversation, how do you go looking for such a client and how does such conversation goes? That is two questions in one.
RN: We will not actively go out looking for customers, because we cannot offer what we would like to offer. We have now been investigating a number of companies where we have some trial balloon gently on and where we are not so much a customer supplier relationship, but are much longer in a brainstorming setting. To brainstorm with each other , we have recently had a brainstorming session with Van Houten, Jalema and us, all three parties has something to do with paper and we look of “gee, how could we learn from each other” Jalema has a cradle-to-cradle certified “suspension” printed and also they have ink that cradle-to-cradle certified is. Why could you not use the expertise they use? Well, Van Houten has also built up quite some expertise. They have offered their expertise”. But we are not yet actively looking for customers; we have it on the retina, so to speak.
SR: Ok, clear
RN: And then you can also see if you look strictly at what we have now, with FSC and ISO, so you put it in the customer conversation as from, dear customer, we can offer you this, it is a service of the company, see it from this perspective, do something with it or do not do anything with it. “For me it is not really important whether or not someone chooses FSC, and of course we have the goal of ISO which is to produce as much as possible, we actively recommend it, but only when a customer says "yes, that tree, "then I say" to the customer do you find it a good idea if we produces it on the FSC paper? Then that small logo will not count. "They do not notice anything about it, we notice nothing of it, but we can meet our goals.

SR: And of course, it adds to your standardization.

RN: Yes. I've had a few customers who say, "No, just do me, but that other paper."

SR: Did you have those types of customers?
RN: Yes…At the moment that there is no FSC paper available, to say, at that time. So if you look at this kind of heavy species (see product shows), there is very limited choice in FSC quality. The standard paper that we have, there are only fifty of it. It is also a bit on the product, so to speak. Such topper you see here, which chattering itself that does not get you on FSC paper, inside it. So yes, you do have a bit to weigh what can and what cannot. But yes, some customers do not even know that we produce on FSC paper. That’s not good. Because I do mean "we have it propagate outward, we do it that way”, because some customers may have a target around its ISO certification, or who knows what, so he can show “look what we do with the purchase of “. We do the same with our suppliers, we actually ask the same if we bring suppliers to tables: “Boys, are you ISO certified? “.Suppliers deliver our paper, preferably at night, because they can easily drive the truck to the company without any traffic. Strategically it has an advantage to drive at night. It is easier to solve these kinds of problems at night. There, too, we have been thinking how to deal with smart, in this case, exhaust emissions. Together with those suppliers, at the moment you can drive at night and not in traffic waiting, it saves just very emissions. In that kind of stuff we're already pretty far. You will immediately see as we walk around the waste, which is also one of the things from Frank's his " cup of tea -and ', say, is fairly far apart. We already separate the paste: Plates, plastic, paper. We have come a long way. And we show this to our customers. We make relatively make little visits to our customers; we invite them out here to the company so that we can show them what we have to offer. Down (in the production area) the FSC lays on the pallets and you can also show them what we are doing...

SR: ... how incredibly intertwined it is with your entire production line. I find that very cool. If you look at suppliers, your prompt him just briefly, how is the selection process of new trading partners? How do you go looking for new suppliers?
SR: How is the selecting process going to look up for suppliers?
RN: There are two persons in our company, Eric our planner buyer and Dave one of our director, they rates the suppliers through yearly ratings and they receive a grade about quality, timeliness, flexibility etc., but it does not succeed every time delivering when with cradle-to-cradle paper, they are not far as we are and that is a gap, it possible however nobody on our side can use us.
SR: To which extent do you realizes that is not fully sustainable yet not fully cradle-to-cradle but there is ambition for it?
FO: I think the certification is a must, it does not say everything but I think is important if you are working on it and had set their own goals, that is also a must otherwise if it is 40% cheaper for the same quality then you are going to look it as a whole to deliver it and we try on the beginning and on the end of the supply chain.
SR: How is the thinking going? Like for instance, we have a problem and how are we going to solve it or is it that every year you are going to meet with the suppliers and then if there are any request at that moment?
RN: It must to be sold but it must to be well structured …. new ideas….is there necessity for it and if there is then you are going to do research on what are the possibilities.
SR: I am satisfied to see that, this is a question that maybe I would have forgotten but I did research about the rising of online and digital of the print market on what I found, is that true?
RN: You see on the other way that there are clients who come back, we advise them to look for the ideal, you need it and it won’t disappear. We discuss with our customer to know what they really then you can grow because then you get customers from colleagues who are not doing it and see this as a threat ... while we see this as an opportunity ... we depend also on the European legislation.
SR: The FSC certification that you are productive doing, imagine being able to achieve your advantage, is there legislation that on the short term would force other ways of producing?
FO: It is not possible without the certification but it makes it easier to subscribe for example that was our goal to go on that way. It can also happens a request to cradle-to-cradle for example through a community …social return so that means that 5% from your turnover you have to give back to social return.
SR: I have still a question about the most important resources, which are the ink and the paper, so are the equipment also sustainable?
RN: The equipment is of lesser degree of importance of the product, it is not certified by cradle-to-cradle while a cradle-to-cradle comes out, in addition to paper and ink there are process able e techniques, the staples are easy to recycle and to retrieve, however the glue is still a chemical process….cradle for our objective is what we now have, to continue building up and cradle-to-cradle tale evidence of new business unit, perhaps under a different brand name…by means of new marketing technique to show that we can differently positioned in the market.
SD: I would like to know, how are your ink harmful to the environment?
RN: The ink that we are now using, is not in the product but in the production process itself, is a chemical component, in which is difficult because you do not receive the certification of the cradle-to-cradle and it goes back to the original basis back to the commodity or no chemical process, but there is a printing ink company in Austria where the ink is well cradle-to-cradle certificate but we do not know how and where exactly it is made.

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[ 1 ]. http://www.overnightprints.com/history_of_printing
[ 2 ]. http://www.gcworldbiz.com/blogs-columns/guest-star/bid/108159/Digital-Printing-as-a-Disruptive-Innovation-Get-Ready-for-3D-Printing
[ 3 ]. The process of the waterless printing can be seen in figure 1.
[ 4 ]. http://www.answersforbusiness.nl/regulation/corporate-social-responsibility
[ 5 ]. http://www.cert-int.com/node/139
[ 6 ]. http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso_9000.htm
[ 7 ]. http://www.cert-int.com/node/139
[ 8 ]. http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso14000.htm
[ 9 ]. https://ic.fsc.org/about-us.1.htm
[ 10 ]. http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=37801
[ 11 ]. http://www.intergraf.eu/europe-and-the-printing-industry/printing-standard-network
[ 12 ]. More information can be found in figure 2 and 3.
[ 13 ]. http://www.gatewaybaltic.com/EN/Export-Intelligence/Printing-Industry-in-the-Netherlands-05-09-2013.html
[ 14 ]. A clearer view of the production of printed items in Netherlands can be found in figure 4.
[ 15 ]. Defining Sustainable Green Printing Practices, Doreen M. Monteleone, Ph.D
[ 16 ]. The process of cradle-to-cradle can be found in figure 5
[ 17 ]. http://www.andidruk.nl/organisatie.html?PHPSESSID=26cd57b416226370e1f1659cb3f8d2a2
[ 18 ]. www.andidruk.nl
[ 19 ]. Fundamentals of the policy may be found in appendix 1.
[ 20 ]. http://www.andidruk.nl/diensten.html.
[ 21 ]. More information of the five pillars can be found in the interview.
[ 22 ]. Interview information