The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP) has created a new certification for suppliers to the printing industry.
SGP is a non-profit organisation that certifies printing facilities’ sustainability best practices. SGP advocates best practices and innovation among print community stakeholders, ‘aligning the printing industry and its customers in the pursuit of a more accountable sustainable supply chain.’
Supplier certification is the next step in SGP’s mission to further sustainability throughout the printing supply chain, according to the organisation.
“The new certified SGP Supplier program has the potential to improve the sustainability of the printing industry dramatically,’ said Jodi Sawyer, SGP executive committee member and Flexcon representative. ‘Certified printers have far-reaching, positive environmental and social impacts.’
The criteria for SGP supplier certification is similar to the criteria for SGP printers in that they specify the requirements for management and production operations that define sustainable practices encompassing people, planet and profit. The draft criteria document, based on SGP’s successful printer certification efforts, defines the core elements of the SGP certification programme including development and adoption of a sustainability management system (SMS) and best practices.
Ms Sawyer continued, ‘Now with our new supplier certification we will help extend that impact into the printing industry. Through the certification, suppliers will be productive and profitable while at the same time help provide a more sustainable future.’
The draft SGP Supplier certification criteria is open for public comment from 15 November, 2019 through to 15 February, 2020. Interested parties can find the draft criteria at www.sgppartnership.org. Comments should be submitted to sgprogram@sgppartnership.org.
