Post-war Japan went through a transition very similar to that which China is experiencing now. A period of rapid economic growth and consequent rises in pollution, followed by the realisation that growth had to be decoupled and measures taken to protect the environment. Yoshiharu Yui of the Japan Federation of Printing Industries showed how, from the 1970s onwards, improvements in air and water quality were achieved whilst still growing the economy. A shortage of authorised disposal facilities is a concern that echoes the UK, where we have only a few years left in most landfill sites and no-one wanting a new one, or an incinerator, anywhere near where they live. Sadly, each individual’s reluctance is not, in the UK, matched by an equal enthusiasm to address the problem by increasing recycling and generally reducing the volumes of waste they generate.

Japan again has extensive environmental protection legislation, and also industry initiatives to realise the potential of printing as a sustainable industry, the Federation’s target being ‘the printing industry is the environment industry’. The presentation showed a graphic of the environmental load from the printing process, the legislation that controls it and the further steps being taken by Federation’s ‘Green Printing’ initiative. This is a mature system, established in 2002 with green standards for materials, processes and activities. A combination of operating to the green process standard, using green standard materials and implementing green standard activities for environmental improvement lead to a green standard certified factory producing certified products. By 2007, there were 112 printers and 17 million products certified. If you go to the English pages of the JFPI, the first page greets you with the rather wonderful phrase “We love Earth we love printing” – a sentiment that resonates strongly with me.

Mr. Yui reiterated previous speakers’ calls for proactive exchanges of information and collaboration to achieve a common goal of reducing the global environmental load of our industry.