Diamond finish for Soar Print

MEDIA RELEASE
March 11, 2009

Diamond finish for Soar Print

Soar Print is drying the ink on one of the country’s highest environment-friendly credentials.

The Auckland printing services company has attained Enviro-Mark®NZ Diamond certification for all its activities at its New North Road site.

Diamond is the highest level of certification in the Enviro-Mark®NZ programme, managed by Landcare Research, which aims to help New Zealand businesses reduce their environmental impacts and get credible certification for these efforts.

Soar Print is also the country’s first printer to reach diamond status, which is achieved through a third-party audit and also includes four previous levels: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

Managing director Fred Soar says the certification took four years to achieve and is part of a range of environmental initiatives at the plant.

Steps have been taken to optimise its printing procedures and to reduce waste by recycling metals, chemicals, paper and water. Energy-efficient lighting and equipment is now used in the plant and shut down when not in use.

Soar Print uses paper derived from sustainable foresting and also prints on biodegradable plastics.

Fred Soar says vegetable oil-based inks are used for 90 per cent of the work and the results are just as good as older petroleum-based inks.

The company’s recently installed, environmentally-friendly Anicolor printer will see it use even less power, paper and ink in the printing process, with paper savings expected to exceed 30 tonnes a year.

“We believe it’s possible to achieve environmental objectives without compromising quality and we’ve made a significant investment in this area to measure all our systems to ensure our impact on the environment is minimal,” says Fred Soar.

“We’ve made this effort to give our customers greater confidence in the environmental credibility of our printed products.”

Enviro-Mark®NZ’s programme manager, Charlie Bartlett, says Soar Print has led the way for the print industry in achieving Enviro-Mark®NZ Diamond certification

“Fred and his team have made exceptional progress and Soar Print is now one of only ten companies in New Zealand with our highest level of certification. It goes to show that putting good environmental management at the centre of your business reduces costs and provides a key point of difference that customers really like.”

-ENDS-

About Soar Print
• Established in 1920
• New Zealand-owned and operated
• Complete, end-to-end printing services company
• Industry leader in innovation, technology and the environment.
• www.soarprint.co.nz

About Enviro-Mark®NZ
• Enviro-Mark® was developed in the United Kingdom to provide an Environmental Management System (EMS) accessible to all organisations.
• In 2001 Landcare Research, a Crown Research Institute, secured the New Zealand licence for EnviroMark®NZ.
• The tool has been adapted for use in this country and registered as EnviroMark®NZ, providing businesses with a framework to systematically assess their performance against agreed standards.
• Achievement of each standard is verified by an external audit to provide complete objectivity in the certification process.
• www.enviro-mark.co.nz

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