As Seen in PRINTING United Alliance
By Cory Francer, Analyst, NAPCO Research
More printers are now paying attention to how the climate outside impacts what’s happening inside their facilities. How can they make smart business decisions? Follow the data.
By collecting data, printers can then determine where there may be inefficiencies in their facilities and can implement improvement strategies. For example, utilizing its SGP certification, Polaris Direct, a Hooksett, New Hampshire-based printing company specializing in high-volume direct mail processing, has implemented facility-wide improvements to its lighting and water fixtures, reducing both its overall usage and utility costs.
“Through SGP, we’ve done initiatives making improvements to the facility that help us run more efficiently, [such as] lighting throughout the facility,” John Knoblock, Polaris Directs controller, says. “We just did an upgrade to the warehouse facility lighting getting rid of the old fluorescent bulbs, going with LED lighting that’s significantly more efficient.”
The result, Knoblock shares, was an approximately 15% reduction in energy consumption in the fourth quarter of 2023. Water usage is another area where Polaris Direct has made sustainability improvements, replacing older fixtures throughout the facility with more efficient ones. In addition to its SGP certification, Polaris Direct has received a silver rating from EcoVadis and is chain-of-custody certified by both the Forest Stewardship Council and Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
“Every year we have a continuing improvement project and we’re committed to those CIPs,” CEO Judith Maloy says, “In the last couple of years, we’ve redone the lighting as one, and the following year we looked at our water consumption. It’s a nice way for us to really focus and hone in on an area that we can improve upon. It’s a great framework to guide the process, so we’re not just out there saying, ‘What do we do next?'”
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