Newspaper printers in South Korea, Sri Lanka and New Zealand are among winners of Kodak's Sonora Green Leaf Award.
The competition recognises environmental responsibility among users of the Kodak plate. The manufacturer has named 13 winners for its 2018 competition globally, seven of which are in the Asia Pacific region.
Founded in 2002, South Korea's SRB Printing has two factories in Gwangju, printing daily newspapers including Donga Ilbo, Hankyoreh, Mueung Ilbo and Seoul Economic Daily, as well as Sarangbang, described as the largest local information source in the Honam region. The company measures environmental performance regularly, producing a report which is shared with employees and affiliates. Both energy and water usage have targets for reduction.
Fairfax Media (now Nine) subsidiary Stuff New Zealand prints nine daily newspapers, community papers, a weekly paper and several magazines. The company has set a target to reduce electricity consumption 20 per cent by 2020, with steps to achieve their target including installing current transformer meters to measure all machinery in the plant, variable speed drive controls on compressors, and LED lighting throughout print sites. They recycle plastic and paper waste and all printing plates, and have achieved a carbon reduction of more than 51 per cent since 2011 base performance, far above a target of 20-25 per cent reduction. Stuff is also a member of the Climate Leaders Coalition to show their commitment to reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere.
Sri Lanka newspaper group Wijeya Newspapers - which was established in 1979 - prints a range of daily newspapers and magazines in English and Sinhala, meeting the country's cultural and linguistic diversity. The company not only recycles paper, plates, plastics, CFL bulbs and food waste, but also treats wastewater to reuse it for gardening, using energy-efficient equipment and monitoring energy usage in the plant.
Also among Green Leaf winners are Japanese book printer Toyokuni Printing
And Indonesia magazine printer GAP (Gelora Aksara Pratama). One other winning newspaper printer is Germany's Presse-Druck-Und Verlags in Augsburg.