Is becoming a certified sustainable or green printing operation a priority for you? If not, you may want to take a closer look at what certification can do to transform your business. Many print customers are demanding that their products be produced in a sustainable fashion. In addition to meeting customers demands, sustainable business practices provide business benefits as well as protect the environment. Companies that have become certified under the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership have been able to cut their operating costs, increase their productivity, and reduce their impact on the environment. In an exciting development, New York State has become the first state to preference printing companies certified under the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership. This means that decision makers in the state are encouraged to issue contracts to printing companies who follow SGP’s standards in sustainability. By making this decision, New York clearly announced their positive stance on a drive for a greener tomorrow. “The decision to give preference to SGP-certified facilities is significant, as it formally recognizes the value that SGP certification provides for sustainability and sustainable print procurement,” commented Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America and SGP board member. “This is the first step in a wide-scale recognition that facilities certified by the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership are able to meet the needs of those print customers that have made sustainability a part of their print procurement specifications.” If you’d like more information on the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership or how your business can become more environmentally friendly, contact our Environmental Health and Safety department by emailing Gary Jones by clicking...

Is becoming a certified sustainable or green printing operation a priority for you? If not, you may want to take a closer look at what certification can do to transform your business. Many print customers are demanding that their products be produced in a sustainable fashion. In addition to meeting customers demands, sustainable business practices provide business benefits as well as protect the environment. Companies that have become certified under the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership have been able to cut their operating costs, increase their productivity, and reduce their impact on the environment. In an exciting development, New York State has become the first state to preference printing companies certified under the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership. This means that decision makers in the state are encouraged to issue contracts to printing companies who follow SGP’s standards in sustainability. By making this decision, New York clearly announced their positive stance on a drive for a greener tomorrow. “The decision to give preference to SGP-certified facilities is significant, as it formally recognizes the value that SGP certification provides for sustainability and sustainable print procurement,” commented Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America and SGP board member. “This is the first step in a wide-scale recognition that facilities certified by the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership are able to meet the needs of those print customers that have made sustainability a part of their print procurement specifications.” If you’d like more information on the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership or how your business can become more environmentally friendly, contact our Environmental Health and Safety department by emailing Gary Jones by clicking...

In what seems to be a forever-changing regulatory landscape, employers can only imagine what new EPA and OSHA requirements they will encounter in 2015. How can you avoid serious fines, negative publicity, and serious injuries from EHS violations? For managers, business owners, or anyone involved in EHS in the printing industry, those are just a few of the many concerns that can keep you up at night. But if there’s one thing we do know about your job going into 2015, it’s that the stakes are going to get higher and the rules more complicated. Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America, has experienced his share of sleepless nights too, usually because he is traveling from state to state helping printers solve serious EHS challenges. We caught up with him in between a print consulting project and a key EPA meeting to talk about the crucial EHS issues facing industry companies today and important regulation changes they need to prepare for. You’ve led several significant EHS consulting and compliance auditing projects for printing operations this year. Can you tell us about some of the latest ones you’ve been working on? Gary Jones: Our team has been busy on a number of projects this year, both on the environmental and health and safety front. For many of the environmental projects, we’re helping operations with obtaining air permits as well as their compliance record keeping and reporting. Most printing companies don’t realize that if you purchase new equipment or if the regulations change, they may need to apply for an air permit—even small companies. While the thresholds vary from state to state, many of them have dropped to very low levels. In fact, in certain areas every piece of equipment that emits pollution must now have a permit. On the health and safety side, companies are concerned with the fallout of the printing industry being declared a high-hazard industry for amputations. OSHA has been targeting printing companies and focusing on how they are protecting employees from machine related hazards which include machine guarding and lockout/tagout procedures. In fact 78% of OSHA inspections in the printing industry for fiscal year 2014 were planned or targeted inspections. This shows that OSHA has clearly become very aggressive regarding inspections in the printing industry. Can you describe the top issues you see for members in the EHS field going into 2015? GJ: OSHA’s new reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2015, will be a game changer. Employers will be required to report any work-related incidents that result in an amputation, loss of an eye, or in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees within 24 hours to OSHA. Any fatality must...

In what seems to be a forever-changing regulatory landscape, employers can only imagine what new EPA and OSHA requirements they will encounter in 2015. How can you avoid serious fines, negative publicity, and serious injuries from EHS violations? For managers, business owners, or anyone involved in EHS in the printing industry, those are just a few of the many concerns that can keep you up at night. But if there’s one thing we do know about your job going into 2015, it’s that the stakes are going to get higher and the rules more complicated. Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America, has experienced his share of sleepless nights too, usually because he is traveling from state to state helping printers solve serious EHS challenges. We caught up with him in between a print consulting project and a key EPA meeting to talk about the crucial EHS issues facing industry companies today and important regulation changes they need to prepare for. You’ve led several significant EHS consulting and compliance auditing projects for printing operations this year. Can you tell us about some of the latest ones you’ve been working on? Gary Jones: Our team has been busy on a number of projects this year, both on the environmental and health and safety front. For many of the environmental projects, we’re helping operations with obtaining air permits as well as their compliance record keeping and reporting. Most printing companies don’t realize that if you purchase new equipment or if the regulations change, they may need to apply for an air permit—even small companies. While the thresholds vary from state to state, many of them have dropped to very low levels. In fact, in certain areas every piece of equipment that emits pollution must now have a permit. On the health and safety side, companies are concerned with the fallout of the printing industry being declared a high-hazard industry for amputations. OSHA has been targeting printing companies and focusing on how they are protecting employees from machine related hazards which include machine guarding and lockout/tagout procedures. In fact 78% of OSHA inspections in the printing industry for fiscal year 2014 were planned or targeted inspections. This shows that OSHA has clearly become very aggressive regarding inspections in the printing industry. Can you describe the top issues you see for members in the EHS field going into 2015? GJ: OSHA’s new reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2015, will be a game changer. Employers will be required to report any work-related incidents that result in an amputation, loss of an eye, or in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees within 24 hours to OSHA. Any fatality must...

In what seems to be a forever-changing regulatory landscape, employers can only imagine what new EPA and OSHA requirements they will encounter in 2015. How can you avoid serious fines, negative publicity, and serious injuries from EHS violations? For managers, business owners, or anyone involved in EHS in the printing industry, those are just a few of the many concerns that can keep you up at night. But if there’s one thing we do know about your job going into 2015, it’s that the stakes are going to get higher and the rules more complicated. Gary Jones, Assistant Vice President of EHS Affairs at Printing Industries of America, has experienced his share of sleepless nights too, usually because he is traveling from state to state helping printers solve serious EHS challenges. We caught up with him in between a print consulting project and a key EPA meeting to talk about the crucial EHS issues facing industry companies today and important regulation changes they need to prepare for. You’ve led several significant EHS consulting and compliance auditing projects for printing operations this year. Can you tell us about some of the latest ones you’ve been working on? Gary Jones: Our team has been busy on a number of projects this year, both on the environmental and health and safety front. For many of the environmental projects, we’re helping operations with obtaining air permits as well as their compliance record keeping and reporting. Most printing companies don’t realize that if you purchase new equipment or if the regulations change, they may need to apply for an air permit—even small companies. While the thresholds vary from state to state, many of them have dropped to very low levels. In fact, in certain areas every piece of equipment that emits pollution must now have a permit. On the health and safety side, companies are concerned with the fallout of the printing industry being declared a high-hazard industry for amputations. OSHA has been targeting printing companies and focusing on how they are protecting employees from machine related hazards which include machine guarding and lockout/tagout procedures. In fact 78% of OSHA inspections in the printing industry for fiscal year 2014 were planned or targeted inspections. This shows that OSHA has clearly become very aggressive regarding inspections in the printing industry. Can you describe the top issues you see for members in the EHS field going into 2015? GJ: OSHA’s new reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2015, will be a game changer. Employers will be required to report any work-related incidents that result in an amputation, loss of an eye, or in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees within 24 hours to OSHA. Any fatality must...

As you know the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has revised Hazard Communication Standard (HCS), which means a new to-do list for many printers. Last time we told you about the EHS resources available even if you missed the initial training deadline of December 2013.  Here is a “Who, What, Why, When, and Where” overview to give you a clearer explanation of what you need to do and when to do it to remain in compliance. WHO Do These New Standards Affect? All printing operations are subject to the Hazard Communication Standard because of the use of chemicals such as inks, toners, cleaning solutions, etc. As a printing operation, you must provide information to your employees about the hazards associated with your chemicals, including how to work with them in a safe manner through labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), which are replacing the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and provide more detailed information in a uniform format. WHAT Actions Must My Company Take? The Hazard Communication Standard requires all employers with hazardous chemicals in their workplaces to: Prepare and implement a written hazard communication program. Develop a written inventory of products that contain hazardous chemicals. Obtain, maintain, and make available to employees SDSs for all products on the written inventory. Ensure all containers, including in-plant or secondary ones, are properly labeled. Conduct employee training. Due to the revisions made by OSHA to incorporate the GHS (the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling Chemicals), there are several changes printing operations need to make within the next two years to meet the new requirements. The main areas covered follow. Initial employee training to be completed by December 1, 2013. If you have not started training your employees yet or need help, see the training materials here (member login required). The deadline for revising  chemical container labels is December 1, 2015. The completely revised product label requirements mandate that specific information must be included on each label. These new requirements state that labels will now require all of the following: Product identifier Signal word Hazard statement(s) Pictogram(s) Precautionary statement(s) Supplier information For more information on the pictograms, see theSafety Poster – Pictograms Quick Reference. In-plant container labels also require special attention. The revised standards acknowledge the same secondary container rule: If an employee transfers a material from a labeled container to a secondary container, which is intended only for immediate use by that employee, and that employee understands the hazards associated with the material, then that container does not have to be labeled unless it is either stored for future use or passed to another employee.  One major change to the in-plant labeling system is to the Hazard Materials...