Environmental Project, 1110 – Ecolabelling of printed matter - part I

Ecolabelling of printed matter - part I

1 Introduction

1.1 Outline of the present Swan Criteria Document for Printed Matter
1.2 Structure of this report

Eco-labelling schemes, type I, following the ISO standards (ISO 14020 and ISO 14024) have been established in a number of regions over the last 10-15 years. This project covers the Nordic Swan Scheme and draws on experience through 8 years with the Criteria Document on Printed Matter.

1.1 Outline of the present Swan Criteria Document for Printed Matter

The documentation for the criteria in the existing Swan Criteria Document for Printed matter (Nordic Ecolabelling, version 3.1) is the background document from Nordic Ecolabelling from 2001 (SFS 2001). This document serves as documentation for the criteria revision process leading to the present criteria document. However, the background document is not a scientific report, and is based mostly on the two Swedish technical studies. The background document is focussed on the two Swedish technical studies (technical background documents) by Brodin and Korostenski (1995, 1997), an investigation of data from 360 printing industries in the Nordic countries, and a number of other studies, including an LCA study on printed matter from 1995 (Dalhielm & Axelsson 1995). Thus, the life cycle approach is included implicitly, but neither in a systematic nor comprehensive way, as also reflected by the fact that three other LCA studies from the 1990’ties (Axelsson et al. 1997, Drivsholm et al. 1997, INFRAS 1998) are not mentioned.

The technical background documents by Brodin and Korostenski (1995, 1997) cover results of questionnaires to about 150 Swedish printing industries (60 sheet fed offset) on key figures for emissions and consumptions. The resulting proposed eco-labelling criteria in these documents are, therefore, mainly based on a combination of key figures and environmental regulatory demands on single emissions, dangerous chemicals etc. This focus seems also to be the main fundament of the existing Swan Criteria Document for Printed matter (Nordic Ecolabelling, version 3.1). A short description of the two technical background documents by Brodin and Korostenski and the existing Swan Criteria Document is enclosed in Annex A.

1.2 Structure of this report

Section 2 is a comparison between LCA results and the Swan Criteria Document
Section 3 is a comparison between LCA results and the Paper Profile provisions as defined in the Manual for the scheme.
Section 4 is a description of supply chain collaboration and the synergy effects of incorporating environmental labelling into environmental management systems.

1.3 Short presentation of the scenarios of the report part II, “Ecolabelling off printed matter – Life cycle assessment of model sheet fed offset printed matter ”Inventory data used in the reference scenarios in the report part II, “Ecolabelling off printed matter – Life cycle assessment of model sheet fed offset printed matter” is based of the production stage of a generic printed matter produced at a model sheet fed offset printing company. The raw materials for the production stage included in this generic study are the dominant types typically used in ‘traditional’ sheet feed offset, i.e. film, film developer, fixer, biocides, plates, plate developer, gumming solution, paper, alcohol (isopropyl alcohol, IPA), printing ink, fountain solution, lacquer (varnishes), glue and cleaning agents.

The inventory data described above are used in the reference scenario, and in continuation to this reference scenario also a number of alternative scenarios based on the reference scenario but with changes in some of the parameters, were carried out. These were:

Scenario 1: Average energy
Scenario 2: Saturated paper market
Scenario 3: Variation in paper spillage
Scenario 4: Variation in printing ink consumption
Scenario 5: Waste water treatment included
Scenario 6: Alternative biocide agent for rinsing water
Scenario 7: No waste water emitted