EarthColor enables green meetings (and savings) for pharmaceutical giant.

EarthColorCase Study

EarthColor’s “green meetings service” delivers measurable sustainability and business benefits.

Environmental leader EarthColor used a wind-power-driven, web-accessible print-on-demand system to help a large pharmaceutical company meet a corporate mandate to optimize sustainability at its meetings. The program reduces per meeting energy use by 150,000 BTUs, water use by 80 gallons, landfill waste by 36 pounds, greenhouse gases by 250 pounds and cost by 20 percent.

EarthColor’s environmental leadershipFew companies in the graphic communications industry match EarthColor’s record of leadership in environmental sustainability. As one of the industry’s early participants in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders Program, the company has set a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent of revenue by 2012 and is on track to reach or surpass that goal. To that end, EarthColor facilities run on 100 percent renewable wind power. Its innovations include its Earth•Aware® branded paper, which is chain-of-custody certified and one of the only papers that uses carbon-neutral manufacturing and distribution processes. EarthColor’s sustainability efforts have been recognized with the 2009 Environmental Excellence Gold Award from American Printer Magazine and a 2009 Green Power Leadership Award from the EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Center for Resource Solutions.

The challenge A large European pharmaceutical company with a significant U.S. presence hosts more than 50 meetings each year at off-site facilities for sales and speaker training, planning and educating the public at health fairs. In recent years, logistics companies have staged the meetings and provided the audiovisual and printing support, which includes signage, name tags, agendas and meeting packets. Expediency sometimes led the logistics companies to compromise brand consistency, sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

Following a directive from company headquarters requiring all meetings to be as environmentally sustainable as possible, the pharmaceutical company took a fresh look at its processes. EarthColor had supported one of its 2008 meetings, introducing some green capabilities, such as printing on papers with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, ensuring paper sourcing from sustainably managed forests. Subsequently, EarthColor was invited to respond to a request for quotation on a greener approach.

“Meetings tend to generate a lot of waste, both for the company and for the environment,” said Nicholas Brusco, president, Earth•Digital, the digital division of EarthColor. “Print on demand can support meetings sustainably, and that’s a really good story.” It was EarthColor’s story, and by summer 2009, EarthColor was awarded the business.

About EarthColor EarthColor is a $270-million (2009) full-service commercial printer offering one-to-one marketing, Web-enabled document creation, print on demand and obsolescence reduction services aimed at improving its customers’ business results. The 30-year-old company has about 700 employees in 12 locations in the United States, including headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. Its six divisions have various specialties in digital and offset printing, data management and analytics, bindery, fulfillment and lettershop services. Web site: www.earthcolor.com.

The solutionEarthColor built an automated web-to-print system to reduce waste with on-demand printing, specified more eco-friendly substrates for the pharmaceutical’s print applications, and identified other green opportunities.

The web-to-print system houses the pharmaceutical company’s corporate-approved printing assets online. Xerox® FreeFlow® Web Services provides the web storefront for pharmaceutical staff to order jobs from stored assets and templates, and to add assets to the collection. When an order is submitted, Xerox® FreeFlow Process Manager® automates job ticket creation, prepress work and routing of print-ready files to hot folders for the targeted press. Printing can occur as soon as the right paper is loaded in the target printer—either wide format printers, one of the five Xerox® iGen4® Digital Presses or offset presses. Most production is digital; offset is used to preprint shells on FSC-certified stocks for time-sensitive pieces to be printed on site.

All printing is on FSC-certified papers. Most iGen4 production uses EarthColor’s Earth Aware® coated paper, which is FSC-certified, elementally chlorine-free, made with a minimum of 10 percent recycled post-consumer waste, and carbon-neutral in its manufacturing and distribution.

EarthColor replaced the foam board used for wide-format printed signs with a board that has the same qualities but is biodegradable. To enable reuse, the signs are printed with logos and text that are common for multiple meetings and covered with a glucose-based, biodegradable plastic sleeve—meeting-specific messages are then printed on letter-sized paper and slipped inside the sleeve.

All production takes place at EarthColor’s Moonachie, N.J., facility, which runs on 100 percent renewable wind power. In addition, the company documents its environmental footprint by tracking data about energy usage, airborne emissions, solid waste production and use of recycled products. From this data, EarthColor provides regular reports to the pharmaceutical company on its meetings’ environmental impact.

“ Meetings tend to generate a lot of waste, both for the company and for the environment. Print on demand can support meetings sustainably, and that’s a really good story.”

— Nicholas Brusco President, Earth•Digital

Case study at a glanceChallenge • Meet corporate mandate to optimize

environmental sustainability in staging more than 50 off-site meetings each year, including meeting-related printing.

• Provide branding consistency in printed materials.

Solution• Xerox® FreeFlow-enabled automated web-

to-print system reduces waste by enabling printing in precise quantities needed on five Xerox® iGen4® Digital Presses and wide-format printers.

• Printing assets are preapproved to maintain brand consistency.

• Green substrates—including EarthColor Earth•Aware® coated paper and a biodegradable signboard—help control waste and lower carbon footprint.

• Printing plant uses 100 percent wind energy to reduce carbon footprint.

• EarthColor tracks and reports on the program’s sustainability achievements

Results • Optimized sustainability• Reduced average energy use per

meeting by 150,000 BTUs, average water consumption by 80 gallons and average landfill waste by 36 pounds

• Reduced or offset an average of 250 pounds of greenhouse gases per meeting

• Cost reduced by 20 percent • Consistent brand representation • Reliable, on-time deliveries• High customer satisfaction• Establishes a service that EarthColor

is selling to other meeting-intensive companies to generate new business

The resultsSince beginning work for the pharmaceutical company for December 2008 meetings, EarthColor has delivered optimal sustainability at a lower cost while also improving branding consistency.

EarthColor-collected data shows the program is on track to reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 250 pounds per meeting. On average, each meeting uses about 150,000 BTUs less energy and 80 gallons less water and results in 36 pounds less waste going to a landfill. Factors in the reductions include:

• Printing with 100 percent renewable wind energy

• Environmental attributes of the paper

• Recycling and reuse of the biodegradable foam board signs

• Responsible treatment of chemicals

• Online proofing, which eliminates printing and shipping physical proofs, and

• On-demand printing with the Xerox® iGen4 press, which reduces paper waste and uses nontoxic toners.

The greener processes reduce the pharmaceutical company’s costs by 20 percent or more, despite higher costs for the biodegradable foam board. About half of the savings are from the Xerox® FreeFlow-enabled automated workflow, which eliminates human intervention in writing job tickets and confirming that files are print ready. Other key contributors include waste reduction from on-demand printing and reuse of signage boards.

Further, EarthColor’s web-to-print system maintains consistent branding by ensuring that all printing assets made available to meeting organizers are pre-approved by corporate.

Finally, EarthColor logistics have been smooth, turnarounds prompt and deliveries on time—customer satisfaction is high.

Now EarthColor is generating new business by marketing the service to other companies in pharmaceuticals, financial services and other meeting-intensive industries. EarthColor’s differentiators include the service’s sustainability and online ordering for three print formats—digital, wide-format and offset. Brusco: “Meeting support in general is a great opportunity, and this is one of the verticals and solutions we’re planning on pursuing aggressively.”

About Xerox Xerox Corporation offers production printing, workflow and business development solutions that help graphic communications companies and in-plants to run environmentally responsible operations and boost their bottom lines. Web site: www.xerox.com/digitalprofit.

© 2010 Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved. XEROX®, XEROX® and Design, FreeFlow®, FreeFlow Process Manager® and iGen4® are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Earth•Aware® is a registered trademark of EarthColor.