A Printing Facility with Morals

So a few days ago I got an email from the editor of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s magazine, The Conservationist. I had interned there after freshmen year and keep pretty in touch with the small staff they have over there in Albany. The email was an invite to meet them and a few other selected people at Vanguard Printing Llc, right here in Ithaca! Obviously, as a journalism major, I am not going to pass up the chance to see the print industry at its best, so yesterday I headed over to the printing facility for a tour. The place was pretty great. I was treated like royalty (that is probably because I was with the editor of a magazine they were printing) and got an extensive tour of the whole process. Of course, I make sure I ask the normal questions any environmental studies student would (when entering a facility that houses storage rooms of paper roles) about their commitment to being environmentally conscious and what the deal is with paper recycling.

I was delighted to find that they run by FSC regulations. The FSC is the Forest Stewardship Council, formed in order to, as the website says, “change the dialogue about and the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide.” And although the FSC isn’t the end-all-be-all for paper rules, Vanguard does it’s best to make sure that they follow the standards, stating on their website the following two parts of the FSC system so their customers know just what this “green” printer is doing:

“Forest Management certification ensures that the forest is managed to high standards covering social, environmental, and economic issues… Chain of Custody certification traces the wood from those forests through all stages of processing and distribution. This is the certification we hold.”

Vanguard makes sure the chemicals used are aqueous based and basically all of the facility’s waste paper is put through a giant shredder, packed into hay bale looking squares and stacked to be recycled. It is clear to me now why those guys over at the DEC decided to print with them. Kudos Vanguard.

Posted January 30, 2010 at 6:03 pm by Rebecca Webster | Share on Facebook
Categories: Ithaca College

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