Retailers' green ambitions put printers under pressure

摘要

While many of today's retailers have realised that consumers want them to source environmentally responsible print, they seem less keen to put their money where their mouths are and actually pay for it. In front of the retail buyer sits a wish list. It is full of the new biodegradable and recyclable substrate options, as well as the low-solvent ink products, available to printers for point-of-sale (POS) work. The printer nods as he reads down the list of demands - these requests are common now with CSR reports and the green expectations of consumers forcing companies' hands - but he stops as he sees the budget figures at the end. His face goes white. The silence closes in and lengthens and the pressure builds as he scrambles around his brain for the words to explain that those figures for that spec are just not going to be possible.