Richard Kilby, President of Barefoot Press – a pioneer in eco-friendly printing in Raleigh, NC – has been nominated for the William D. Schaeffer Environmental Award.

Created in 1990, the award honors Dr. William Schaeffer and his many contributions to environmental research, compliance education, and advocacy in the printing industry. According to the Printing Industries of America website: “The Schaeffer Award serves to recognize an individual’s focus on advancing environmental awareness and action in the graphic communications industry as a whole. A candidate’s accomplishments should go above and beyond job requirements or display an unselfish contribution to the industry not solely for a particular organization’s commercial gain. The ongoing environmental advocacy of Dr. Schaffer typifies the leadership activities expected of award recipients. Individuals must have sustained long-term efforts (on the order of several years or more) that have resulted in successful environmental programs and improvements.”

Barefoot Press was founded in 1987 in order to promote recycled papers and green printing practices. The company has pursued it’s agenda of educating customers and the general public about the benefits of eco-friendly printing for some 23 years. Mr. Kilby’s nomination is a recognition of those ongoing efforts.

We are happy to confirm that another step toward sustainable printing has been accomplished here at Barefoot Press. We reported earlier on our transition to process-free Fuji plates. Well, the plates are now in full production and everything went like clockwork.

Because these plates use no water, developer, or any other chemistry, they have totally eliminated all remaining environmental issues in our prepress department. We simply laser-image the plates on our Fuji DART platesetter and hang them on the press. The plates fall into register quicker, roll up to color quicker, and so far we have had no plate remakes due to a quality issue. Because they are made from a high grade aluminum they are just as recyclable as our last plates, but have none of the waste disposal issues related to the plate processor.

We are always looking for ways to improve our eco-friendly printing process. This is a big step toward sustainability, and it wasn’t inexpensive to implement. But the results are worth the investment and effort, and we are pleased to say we have the cleanest prep department a green printer can have. We are offering demonstrations, so if you are interested please drop us a line.

The new year brings new innovation to Barefoot Press as we begin the transition to process-free plates in our pressroom. This move will eliminate all wet chemistry in our prepress department. The Fuji Ecomaxx-T plates are imaged via the laser diode banks on our Fuji DART platesetter, then go straight to press without the need for a chemical processor.

We are constantly striving to achieve a cleaner green printing process, and this is a significant step in that evolution. Our previous plates used a largely water-based process, but still required chemistry along with all of the maintenance, mess and water usage. Now, the water usage is completely eliminated and the process is totally clean and dry. We are very excited to make this move towards an even more eco-friendly printing process.

You can’t imagine how much relief your green printer feels upon learning that global warming was actually just a hoax perpetrated by a handful of agenda-driven, mad scientists intent on ruling the planet. We’ve been following the unfolding story of emails uncovered by the intrepid, “fair-and-balanced” reporters at FOX News. It’s hard to believe these “junk” scientists managed to pull off such a large-scale deception. But I have to tell you it’s a load off our shoulders.

I think everyone here at Barefoot Press is sick of that scratchy, 100% recycled toilet paper in the staff restrooms. Not to mention those stinking recycling bins cluttering up the loading dock. The company Toyota is cramped, and I always felt intimidated on the highway. I’m really tired of tending that garden in the front.

For 23 years we’ve been laboring under the belief that green printing is important, that it was our duty to do our part. We’ve used recycled papers, pushed our suppliers to develop low-VOC chemistry and soy inks, implemented comprehensive in-house recycling programs, offset our carbon emissions by supporting green energy, donated profits to environmental groups (THAT was a waste!)… The effort has been exhausting. Happily, we now know it’s just not necessary.

I don’t feel imtimidated on the highway any more, because our new company car is a Hummer! Our increased margins allowed us to buy it new. These vinyl-based inks smell really strong, but they dry super-fast. We put a huge dumpster where the recycling bins used to be, and the scrap paper gets burned once a week in the parking lot.

But the coolest thing is that we now have a lot of awesome, cheap, virgin-fiber paper choices. Most of these sheets originate from the rampant, unregulated logging in the rainforests of Indonesia and the “developing” world, so there’s no “fair labor” or regulatory costs to pass on to you. It’s much easier to print on too, having never been through the repulping process. As our International Paper rep told us years ago, “old growth trees make a fine sheet of paper!”

Yes, happy days are here again, and our collective conscience is clear. Things are cheaper and easier now. Our profits are better than ever. And we finally have some soft toilet paper.

Designer Mike Rosado of Empire Properties has selected French Muscletone 140# cover for the latest printing of the company’s business cards. This is an especially appropriate choice considering that Empire owns and manages a large number of historic commercial properties in downtown Raleigh, and this is the heaviest card stock we offer. “This business card is as thick as a brick!”

Muscletone is manufactured by your green printer’s favorite eco-friendly paper mill, French Paper Co. in Niles, MI. The mill is powered entirely by the company’s onsite hydro plant. Almost all of the papers produced at French contain 100% post-consumer recycled fiber.

We appreciate Empire’s move to green printing in their promotional materials, as well as their mission to recycle some of Raleigh’s oldest buildings into wonderful new spaces for restaurants, bars, offices and shops.

SPIZE Cafe in downtown Raleigh is open for business. Entrepeneur Meechai Kowae and his manager Jacq Rode have put together a menu of flavorful Thai soups, noodle dishes, wraps and baguettes. These folks are dedicated to green business practices, and it shows in every aspect of the restaurant, from the recycled aluminum chairs and repurposed salvaged marble tabletops, to the bamboo takeout containers and corn-based dinnerware, and of course the menus and business cards.

Clearly green printing is only part of this restaurant’s approach to sustainability. The menus were printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper using soy inks and water-based chemistry. The rich brown background color highlights tiny colorful thumbnail images of menu items. The menus look great, but they hardly do justice to the wonderful, authentic food.

SPIZE opened to service the lunch crowd in downtown Raleigh, NC, but now has expanded dinner hours. The cafe, located at 121 Fayetteville St., is open Mon- Fri 11am – 2.30pm, and Wed-Sat 5pm – 9.30pm. New on the menu is a selection of Asian beers and organic wines.

Check out the menu at the cafe’s website. You can check them out on facebook too.

Our local customers (and some from a few states away) will remember the open house we held with Jerry French and his cohorts at French Paper Co. Your green printer has just come across some pictures that we thought we’d share with you. They are posted on AIGA’s website.

We had a great time, looked at lots of awesome recycled paper swatches, perused a retrospective of French Paper Co. posters and promos from years past, ate BBQ, drank PBR, listened to an awesome performance by Regina Hexaphone and met lots of great creative professionals. New Page Paper and Lindenmeyr-Munroe helped put the party together.

We’re planning another open house event, so keep your eyes glued to the Green Printing blog for updates.

Raleigh communications agency CapStrat has chosen French Smart White paper for their new business cards and collateral. This paper is manufactured by our favorite mill, French Paper Co. in Niles, MI (www.frenchpaper.com). French is well known for their long history of producing a wide range of recycled paper lines, many of them containing 100% post-consumer fiber. While the Smart White line is not a post-consumer sheet due to it’s extremely bright white shade, it is FSC certified, and is manufactured using 100% green power. In fact, the mill is virtually carbon-neutral, having produced all of it’s electricity since 1922 utilizing an on-site hydroelectric generator and saving an estimated 1 million gallons of oil in the process.

By using Raleigh’s original green printer for the production of this collateral, CapStrat has shown their dedication to eco-friendly printing and green branding. This new identity work utilizes 6 Pantone colors, all lovingly mixed by hand here in our shop using soy-based inks. All press-wash used here is low-VOC and water-miscible, completing the green printing credentials.

In addition to their green branding efforts, CapStrat has a comprehensive in-house recycling program for office waste, including paper, glass and aluminum. They even compost biodegradable scraps in the break area. We think this Agency deserves recognition for taking a leading role in the implementation of green business practices. More on CapStrat can be found on their website: www.capstrat.com

Demand continues to grow for recycled labels. Your green printer is excited to report that we have completed several new projects on this 100% post-consumer recycled label paper. This label is uncoated (non-glossy) and prints beautifully. Most of the projects to date have been printed in four color process using our soy-based inks.

We have done a little bit of investigation into the adhesives, and according to the manufacturer, the material used is Low VOC and water based, and comply with CONEG regulations and the Clean Air Act of 1990. This is great news, which underscores the green printing credentials of this product.

We are stocking this recycled label paper in moderate quantities, and if demand continues to increase we will adjust our stocking quantities accordingly. Please contact us for a quote for your packaging project or mailing labels for your company collateral.

In addition to our 100% recycled toilet tissue, we now also have folded paper towels available in case quantities. These are the same type that are loaded into wall dispensers, or you can just put a stack of them out for use. They are 100% recycled as well and are economically priced.

We think it’s important to offer choices to our green printing customers for some of the harder to find office and home items, so we will continue to source these related products. If there is anything that your office is having a hard time finding just comment to this post or send an email to gogreen@barefootpress.com and we’ll see what we can do.