ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The Environmental Policy of the Bright Print Group of Companies has been founded upon the principles of minimizing our utilization of non-renewable resources and maximizing recycling opportunities. The Directors of the organization take full responsibility for the development, monitoring and management of our environmental initiatives and procedures. These procedures are more fully documented within our Quality Assurance Policy and Procedures Manual, which complies with ISO9001.

WHAT WE ARE ALREADY DOING:

Resource Recovery Certificated from Close the Loop

All staff are encouraged to look for opportunities to continually improve upon our current recycling efforts and environmental management systems. All personnel who have purchasing responsibilities are directed to ensure that they procure products/inputs which are environmentally friendly and/or contain recyclable components where available.

The scope of our policy includes all inputs and outputs of the organization including, emission to air, releases to water, releases to land, and use of raw materials and natural resources. We fully comply with all relevant environmental legislation and industry best practice guidelines.

Primary areas of importance and note:

1. PAPER
Our house stock is Raleigh Novatech. Novatech is an environmentally responsible paper manufactured using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp sourced from sustainable, well managed forests. It is produced by Nordland Papier, a company certified with the FSC Chain of Custody and ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems. The FSC Chain of Custody is the industry’s highest certification.

2. INKS
All inks used within our manufacturing are vegetable based inks manufactured by Hostmann Steinberg GmbH. The use of these inks substantially minimizes the need to use (and store) volatile solvents. This assists with the reduction of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, as well as the disposal of dangerous chemicals. Inks for our large A2 and A1 presses are bought in plastic, recyclable containers, saving considerable energy consumption in the making of metal tins.

3. SPRAY POWDERS
The spray powder used in the pressroom is fully digestible and environmentally friendly.

4. PLATES
Use of film and photographic chemicals within our prepress area has been eliminated by the introduction of Computer to Plate Technology. 100% of all metal plates used are collected and recycled.

5. WATER
We continually strive to minimize the use of water through the following objectives:

Elimination of water intensive processes
Washup of equipment using water substitutes
No hard washing of any surfaces throughout the factory
Regular maintenance of all taps and toilets
Monitoring of our water accounts
Native vegetation in garden areas
Water emissions are monitored by Sydney Water. The relevant permits are in place to discharge filtered water from our premises into the sewer.

6. CHEMICALS
All of our chemicals are environmentally friendly and low volatility. Most chemicals are water miscible. The few chemicals, such as oil, still used which are required to be disposed of, are done so by a licensed contractor. We do not emit any toxic emissions.

7. RECYCLING
99.9% of all paper and board waste is separated and recycled throughout our entire factory. Administration staff separate their paper and general waste to assist with the company’s recycling efforts. Paper cages are collected 3 times per week. Last year we recycled 13 tonne of paper and board per month. This equates to the saving of 169 trees, 32.5 barrels of oil, 53300 kwh of Electricity, 48m3 of landfill and 376,440 litres of water.

8. PLASTICS
We are committed to reduce our reliance on plastic wrapping and to purchase where possible, recycled plastic wrapping. All plastic that comes into the factory via pallet wrapping or other sources is collected in large cages and recycled on a weekly basis.

9. PROOFS
All proofs supplied to clients for print authorization are chemical free digital proofs.

10. ELECTRICITY
We continually monitor our electricity usage and realize that this is a large part of our resource consumption. To counter our reliance on electricity we invested some $30000 in December, 2006 to install a Power Correction Unit to reduce the power consumption throughout our entire premises. We have reduced our power usage by over 20%.

11. PRINTER CARTRIDGES AND CONSUMABLES
We have joined Planet Ark in their quest to recycle printer cartridges and consumables and save these components from entering landfill. All departments within our factory house Planet Ark recycling bins for the collection of printer consumables including copier parts and fax rolls.

12. SMALLER AREAS OF CONSUMPTION
Whilst the above consists of the main areas of our organization which are directly affected by our environmental policies, we also ensure smaller areas of consumption are also monitored, such as silver recovery from old film, separating of aluminium cans for donation, storage and reuse of pallets, recycling of mobile phones and redundant IT equipment.

Consideration is also given to aspects related to the organisation’s activities, products and services including:

Design and implementation
Manufacturing processes
Packaging and Transportation
Environmental performance and practices of contractors and suppliers
Waste Management
Distribution, use and end-of-life of products

IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS WE WILL:

1. Implement ISO 14001. We are in the process of formalizing existing environmental practices, with a view to receiving certification to ISO 14001. This standard would work in conjunction with our existing certification to ISO 9001 for quality practices.

2. Phase out use of existing alcohol based fountain solution and replace with an alcohol substitute – thereby reducing greenhouse emissions and storage of flammable chemicals.

3. Install a filtering system onto our plate processing unit – this will save water consumption on this unit by 90%.

4. Replace existing fluorescent tubes with triphosphor tubes throughout entire factory and office areas.

5. Introduce recycling for all general waste – including food cartons and drink bottles.

6. Seek registration with the Good Environmental Choice Label.

We will continue to monitor, manage and improve our environmental policy and procedures and seek to develop industry best practices in all areas of operation of our organization.

W J Bright
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Revision – June, 2007


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