Big Picture - September 2017 - 24

BIG PICTURE

September 2017

firsthand the savings behind "saving the planet." They're also
the only print shop in the world to receive an SGIA Sustainability Recognition Award eight years in a row.
"We don't want to just meet requirements," says DeAnn
Strenke, marketing manager at Modernistic. "We work hard to
exceed our own expectations and distinguish ourselves as a
leader in sustainable business practices."
Strenke believes the company's employees want to
participate in sustainability, and if opportunities are made
available to them, they will. And they do. They've set up
Gaylord boxes around the shop to facilitate all kinds of
recycling, and the staff takes full advantage. Each year,
Modernistic recycles around 3 tons of aluminum and
miscellaneous metals, 114 tons of corrugated material, 120
tons of plastic waste, and 96 tons of scrap pallets and shipping
crates. Because of their efforts, 333 tons of waste avoided the
landfill last year.
"Recycling has a cost: to get employees on board, to
separate, to haul away," adds Strenke. "But by reducing our
waste, we're not just preventing otherwise recyclable
materials from ending up in the ground; we're reducing the
number of trips the city has to make to our business for trash
collection. That savings, along with the fact that some
materials, like PETG and styrene, can be recycled and
actually bring in money, really adds up over time."
To bring about further efficiencies, the company replaced
all of the metal halide bulbs and fixtures on their shop floor
with compact modular, high-intensity fluorescent bulbs. The
resulting energy savings cut light-related electricity costs by
64 percent - from $58,715 annually to just $21,000. This
reduction also had the added bonus of earning the business
the distinction of Xcel Energy Efficiency Partner Status in
2009 and an Orion Energy Systems Environmental Stewardship Award. It was in 2009 that the company also received
their SGP certification.
"It's all in the continuous improvement," says Strenke.
"Each year, as part of our SGP recertification, we're required
to submit a plan to improve our business further - to make us

24

A Modernistic digital cutting operator removes styrene waste from the shop's Zünd bed
for recycling. A styrene recycling Gaylord located near his operating station reduces
extra steps while maximizing recycling potential.

Modernistic has positioned Gaylords for recycling a wide variety
of different materials throughout their facility, along with
easy-to-follow instructions on what can and cannot be recycled.
These actions remove team member confusion and exponentially
increase recyclable output.

more efficient, or reduce more waste. And that's where the
real savings come in."
Over the years, Strenke, as the shop's SGP coordinator,
and her team have come up with a number of cost-saving
strategies to not only meet the SGP continuous improvement
requirement, but also add profit to the company's bottom line.
In 2016, for instance, they decided to set a goal to reduce the
amount of cleaning disinfectant chemical usage in the company
by 75 percent. By installing a new chemical dispensing system,
they managed to dramatically reduce chemical waste and cut
employee exposure to the hazardous fluid. This change also
significantly reduced the amount of plastic "ready-to-use"
disinfectant bottles that were being shipped to the facility,
further reducing transit and recycling costs.
All that to say, in the end, Modernistic didn't achieve a 75
percent chemical usage reduction. They hit 85 percent.

Just Start
"In 2016, the SGP-certified community realized total operational savings of $2.3 million," says Marci Kinter, chair, SGP
Technical Committee, and member of the SGP Board of
Directors. "That includes a reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions by 2.42 tons."
Being more sustainable and using some kind of benchmark
or certification to keep yourself accountable can benefit your
business in a variety of ways, from creating real cost and
resource savings to ensuring a better, healthier facility and
community, to gaining differentiation in a crowded marketplace. However you choose to start, the best thing to do is just
start. As each print shop noted, it can take small changes over
time, but the savings really do add up.
Whether or not you're currently emphasizing sustainability
in your own shop, it's clear that the days of spending more on
green products, materials, and services with no return on
investment are gone. "Year over year," notes Kinter, "SGP
continues to see the positive impact of sustainable business
practices turned into real operational savings." And that's a
future we can all count on.



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - September 2017

Big Picture - September 2017
Contents
Insight
Wide Angle
Upfront
Inside Output
Extreme Vinyl
Sustainability: The Ultimate ROI?
Get RIP’ed
R+D
Explorer
Big Picture - September 2017 - Big Picture - September 2017
Big Picture - September 2017 - Cover2
Big Picture - September 2017 - Contents
Big Picture - September 2017 - Insight
Big Picture - September 2017 - 3
Big Picture - September 2017 - Wide Angle
Big Picture - September 2017 - 5
Big Picture - September 2017 - Upfront
Big Picture - September 2017 - 7
Big Picture - September 2017 - 8
Big Picture - September 2017 - 9
Big Picture - September 2017 - 10
Big Picture - September 2017 - 11
Big Picture - September 2017 - 12
Big Picture - September 2017 - 13
Big Picture - September 2017 - 14
Big Picture - September 2017 - 15
Big Picture - September 2017 - Inside Output
Big Picture - September 2017 - 17
Big Picture - September 2017 - Extreme Vinyl
Big Picture - September 2017 - 19
Big Picture - September 2017 - Sustainability: The Ultimate ROI?
Big Picture - September 2017 - 21
Big Picture - September 2017 - 22
Big Picture - September 2017 - 23
Big Picture - September 2017 - 24
Big Picture - September 2017 - 25
Big Picture - September 2017 - Get RIP’ed
Big Picture - September 2017 - 27
Big Picture - September 2017 - 28
Big Picture - September 2017 - 29
Big Picture - September 2017 - 30
Big Picture - September 2017 - 31
Big Picture - September 2017 - R+D
Big Picture - September 2017 - 33
Big Picture - September 2017 - 34
Big Picture - September 2017 - 35
Big Picture - September 2017 - 36
Big Picture - September 2017 - 37
Big Picture - September 2017 - 38
Big Picture - September 2017 - 39
Big Picture - September 2017 - Explorer
Big Picture - September 2017 - Cover3
Big Picture - September 2017 - Cover4
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https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/STMG/bp_201410
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