Print the change: making eco-friendly printing the new normal

Tens of thousands of products from brands and companies across the world’s largest industry sectors hold Cradle to Cradle Certified® certification. Now, demand for sustainable packaging is surging. As a result, demand for printing materials, products and processes that are safe, circular and responsible is also rising – and a group of printing companies in Europe are answering the call.

Three early adopters of Cradle to Cradle Certified® in the printing industry are working together to encourage other printers to adopt the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard through a cooperative called Print the Change.

Austria’s gugler*, Denmark’s KLS Pureprint A/S, and Switzerland’s Vögeli have formed Print the Change to share knowledge between Europe’s most sustainable printing companies, setting new benchmarks for products that are safe, healthy and circular. Companies that participate in the cooperative have the opportunity to share resources, drive research and pre-competitively collaborate on the innovation of new materials and methods.

The Print the Change Vision

• An international network of printing companies extending throughout the world committed to Cradle to Cradle principles.

• Ecology benchmarking through the setting of green benchmarks for the global printing industry. As a prerequisite, the production must meet the criteria of sustainability, high-end quality and competitive prices.

• Cradle to Cradle development, including collaboration on the development of additional Cradle to Cradle printing products.

• Sharing knowledge by providing an information portal for green printing practices, research and insights.

The cooperative emerged from the Print the Change Community that gugler created in 2015 to scale its pioneering achievement Europe-wide. In 2011 gugler was the first company in the world to supply Cradle to Cradle Certified printed products. Now the Community builds on a strong framework in the form of the cooperative and invites the world's greenest printers to jointly research and develop the most sustainable and healthiest printing products worldwide. To date, the cooperative has developed more than 20 materials that are certified at a minimum Cradle to Cradle Certified Silver, with more than half of these materials being certified at Gold level.