Environmental programs and procedures

ISO 14001 Certification

Some of our plants are so committed to positive action that they have developed environmental management systems (EMS), so that environmental issues get the attention that they deserve. These EMS are certified by the International Standards Organization (ISO 14001). ISO 14001 is an internationally recognized standard audited and certified by independent third parties, the goal of which is the continual improvement in environmental management.

In 1998, Worldcolor Bromont was the first Canadian printer to receive the ISO 14001 certification. Since then, the corporate Environmental Affairs department has developed and customized a special environmental software package to implement ISO 14001. This software is a step by step guide for the implementation of the EMS in our plants.

Energy Programs

The corporate energy department of Worldcolor continuously seeks out opportunities to reduce energy consumption. This department rolled out a corporate-wide program that includes, among other things, the evaluation of all press dryers in order to maximize efficiency and reduce natural gas consumption. Furthermore, a recent program was initiated to replace all remaining Recuperative Thermal Oxidizers by new state of the art Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers (RTOs). These RTOs use up to 95 percent less natural gas than the other more commonly used control devices.

The primary fuel used at the Worldcolor heatset lithographic offset printing plants is natural gas, a clean burning fuel. When feasible, natural gas and propane consuming equipment is equipped with low-NOx burners.

Some of the gravure plants have installed software for the carbon adsorption systems that serves to reduce natural gas consumption. Other plants are in the process of evaluating the feasibility of this software for their specific site conditions.

By reducing natural gas consumption, Worldcolor is less dependent on energy, the single-largest contributor to global warming.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Worldcolor is committed to optimizing the 3R approach (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in its strategy towards pollution prevention by adopting, as much as possible, products and processes that allow for reduction at the source, and the reuse and recycling of waste materials and by-products. Worldcolor has made considerable investments towards equipment that segregates shreds and bales waste paper for recycling.

Upon request, Worldcolor employs post-consumer recycled paper, chlorine-free paper and vegetable-oil inks to manufacture printed materials.

Every year we recycle spent materials from the production process. These materials would otherwise go to a landfill. In 2006 alone, we recycled:

• 683,000 thousand tons of paper;
• 25,000 tons of cardboard;
• 3,000 tons of aluminum;
• 150 tons of stretch wrap;
• 29 tons of plastic containers;
• 176 tons of copper.

This level of recycling requires dedication on the part of all our employees, including our office employees who participate in the collection of waste office materials, particularly paper, so that we can recycle materials from all aspects of the business.

Air Quality Control

At Worldcolor we understand that our accomplishments can be multiplied by partnering with our vendors, our employees, our customers and the rest of the industry; thus enabling us to extend our environmental commitment across the supply change. Worldcolor is one of the first printers to install regenerative thermal oxidization technology to control emissions from the heatset web offset printing process.

Over the past few years, Worldcolor has made considerable investments in state-of-the-art control technology. This equipment replaces older, less efficient units.

These devices not only reduce emissions to atmosphere from the heatset lithographic printing operations by 99 percent, but also compared to the technology it replaces, it consumes 95 percent less natural gas. There are more than 60 RTOs installed across our plants, thus replacing their less efficient, energy-consuming counterparts, outperforming them in every way.

In the case of gravure printing, all plants use the same control technology to abate emissions from the printing process. This control technology is characterized as being a closed loop process:

1. Gravure inks dry by evaporation.
2. The VOC (volatile organic compounds) vapors produced by the evaporation of the gravure solvents are captured and are exhausted to a carbon adsorption system, where they are converted back into a liquid phase through the use of steam generated by boilers.
3. The VOC liquid is reused in the printing process to dilute incoming raw ink.
4. Excess recovered solvent is sold back to the ink vendors to manufacture new batches of ink and
5. The steam condensate is reused in the boilers.

Working with our ink suppliers and the Institut des Communication Graphiques du Quebec, we continue to fund research to develop more environmentally friendly inks. We will produce printed materials with vegetable oil-based inks for any interested customer. The most common cleaning agent used in lithographic printing is blanket wash. Our vendors have developed blanket wash with 30 to 50 percent less solvent, and in some incidences have improved their chemistry to the point of rendering this raw material non-hazardous. These new blanket washes are widely used across Worldcolor. A major raw material employed by the lithographic printing process is fountain solution. In North America, the printing industry has successfully done away with alcohol-based fountain solution.

Water Quality Control

In our heatset lithographic offset printing plants, digital processes have entirely replaced film production, such that little wastewater is generated in the prepress area and chemical consumption is significantly reduced.

The gravure cylinder making process generates wastewater. This wastewater is pretreated on-site before discharged to the sanitary sewer and complies with all discharge limits required by the respective local authority.