According to a Pira report, RFID and printed electronics will have a big impact on the printing and publishing industries 
A little longer than 80 days perhaps, but UV-cure inkjet is circumnavigating the globe at its own accelerating pace. Foreword
| Written by Philip Swinden, Head of Publications and Events, Pira International | |
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Early on in 2007 Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott unveiled Sustainability 360 – a company-wide emphasis on sustainability extending beyond Wal-Mart’s direct environmental impact. In the UK, M&S CEO Stuart Rose, who reversed the fortunes of the ailing British retail institution, came up with Plan A, a blueprint for building a better business by focusing on five key areas, including climate change, waste and natural resources. You might think ethical trading, zero carbon footprints and sustainability targets could contradict basic tenets of capitalism. Rupert Murdoch doesn’t think so. The CEO of News Corporation recently announced his company will become carbon-neutral in 2010, by buying emission offsets from projects such as wind farms in India. But behind these green banner headlines it’s the suppliers – often the packagers, printers and raw materials producers – that have to make the changes to meet the mandates issued by these corporations, if they are to retain their business. Over the past year or so Pira has reinvented itself to meet the changing, increasingly greener, needs of the print, paper, packaging and publishing industry by providing a range of consultancy, reports, conferences and newsletters on subjects like biodegradable packaging, biomaterials, sustainable packaging, energy efficiency, gasification and alternative energies. This trend will develop and continue as Pira evolves with the industry. In this year’s Profit Through Innovation, many of the articles reflect this greener thread running through our research activities. |