The C901 Pro is Ricoh’s flagship colour digital press for the graphic arts market. It has ‘near offset’ colour quality thanks to newly-designed toner, an easy-to-use controller and plenty of online finishing possibilities. Product manager Emma Pynaert gives PrintSpeak readers a quick tour. iqoption.co.uk in UK

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This morning, for example, I went to the post office to pick up a parcel: a simple, everyday task involving six separate bits of print. There was the notice that came through my door when I wasn’t in; the ticket printed by the on-street meter that allowed me to park outside the post office; the form I had to sign at the post office so they could hand the parcel over; the driving licence I showed them as proof of my identity; and the stamp and the label on my parcel. That’s how great our sector is: what other industry could claim that you use six of its products before breakfast? (Well, maybe cosmetics and toiletries – but that’s another story.)

So when, later this morning, I found a copy of the BPIF’s latest flyer – UK Printing: the Facts and Figures – in the post at work, I was keen to read it. It tells a great story about a great industry, and it’s the kind of thing that makes you proud to work in it. Did you know, for instance, that the UK is the world’s fifth largest producer of printed products? That our industry employs 140,000 people? That those 140,000 people together turned over £14.3 billion pounds last year? That’s a pretty efficient industry, isn’t it – each individual being responsible for about £102,000 of turnover. (Although I must say that I don’t quite like to think what the average profit margin is on that.)

The BPIF has produced this leaflet with the aim of influencing government agencies and other organisations whose decisions have an impact on print. These figures will be used to ‘educate’ politicians, parliamentarians and public servants about the vital role that print plays in the economy – 140,000 employees is a pretty big stick or carrot, depending on how you look at it – and just what it is that’s affected when politicians take decisions such as increasing VAT, for example. 

I’m particularly pleased that the BPIF’s leaflet takes the time to quote some figures on the sustainability of print and paper, because that’s one of the biggest misperceptions about print that I come across when talking to folk outside the industry. Like many others, I’m getting pretty fed-up with hearing the well-worn and entirely erroneous argument that online communications are more environmentally responsible. In fact, some excellent research and ongoing monitoring in the last few years has shown that the energy consumed by the average computer connected to the internet is more than comparable to the energy taken to make a sheet of paper, print it and deliver it to my door. And when you add to that the bite-sized nuggets of information that the BPIF’s leaflet quotes – the area of forest cover in Europe is growing at a rate of 1.5 million football pitches each year, for instance – you have an excellent counter-argument for anyone you happen to meet at a party who wants to tell you what an environmentally unfriendly process print is. I’d have liked a few more statistics about the chemistries and energy consumption, but I know they’re hard to find and even harder to make sense of – and in any case I don’t think I know a single printer who hasn’t put some effort into reducing its environmental impact in the last five years, whether it’s low-chemistry platemaking or a more energy-efficient press, or reducing alcohol on the press. 

Three cheers for the BPIF, and for its tireless efforts to make print as an industry more visible. A copy of this leaflet will be sent to every MP, and I sincerely hope they take the time to read it and understand the message about what a powerful industry this is.