When New Jersey-based letterpress stationery artist Robin Dubin decided to launch a line of eco-friendly wrapping paper, she did some internet research on green printing and landed at Barefoot Press in Raleigh, NC. Robin and her partner/husband Dave Dubin at Robin Beth Designs wanted to produce their designs, consisting of earth-friendly artwork and messages, in the most responsible way. Our house uncoated 70# offset, containing 100% post-consumer recycled fiber processed chlorine free, fit their criteria perfectly. We printed 28×40 press sheets in four color process using our house soy inks, and trimmed them to a flexible 27″x39″ size. In addition, Robin designed a brochure showcasing many other designs, which we printed on 80# cover stock, also 100% pcw recycled paper.

Dave and Robin introduced their designs at the National Stationery Show in New York City on May 19, and the debut created a buzz in the industry. They are currently talking to a UK distributor about exporting to Europe, and are in negotiation with a large North American retailer as well. Stay tuned for big news about this ambitious start-up company.

You can contact the company, and see examples of Robin’s beautiful letterpress wedding invitations at www.robinbeth.com. Dave writes a blog focusing on issues he is passionate about, including the environment, at his site: www.aliveandkickn.com.

The Raleigh News & Observer recognized Barefoot Press in a recent story entitled: Green saves green - companies’ eco-friendly changes do more than make a social statement. In discussing the ways that companies can have a more positive environmental impact, reporter John Murowski gave a nod to Raleigh’s original green printer, writing: “Raleigh printing company Barefoot Press has used soy-based inks and recycled paper for 21 years. For most of its existence, making a moral case for slightly discolored paper was a liability…”

While we aren’t sure where the “slightly discolored paper” reference originated, we do find it interesting that the perception of recycled paper seems to include such negative connotations, even in this age of heightened eco-awareness. Of course, it isn’t necessary to print on dull or off-white paper in order to meet your goal of using 100% post-consumer recycled paper. We have very bright white options available too!

Thanks to John for the mention.
Read the full article on the News and Observer in Raleigh, NC.

On Friday, May 30 at 6:00 pm, Whole Foods Market in Raleigh is hosting a silent auction of painted rain barrels to raise money for a Local Farmers Emergency Fund.

9 artists were asked to create a dynamic visual impact on the surface of a 30 gallon rain barrel. This project will combine the talents of our local artists to raise money for Emergency Farm Assistance, such as drought relief and the hail storm that occurred on May 20th . The rain barrels will be auctioned off during a wine and cheese reception at the Whole Foods Market in Raleigh with live music performed by The Paul Bomar Trio.

Whole Foods Market is located at 3540 Wade Avenue in Raleigh.

Here’s a Sneak Peek!

We get a lot of questions about use of the recycled/recycling logo, so your green printer thought it would be a good use of space to explain the various logos and what they actually mean. The mobius loop is the international symbol of recycling that consists of three chasing arrows, twisted to form a triangle. It can widely be seen on bins, drink cans, bottles, and of course paper products.

First, a little history: 34 years ago, a US paperboard company (CCA) wanted a symbol to promote their recycled content. Gary Anderson, a graphic arts student from UCLA, won their design contest for his 3 chasing arrows. His inspiration was a design known as the Mobius strip, devised by a mathematician of the same name, which illustrates a surface that has only 1 side and no end. CCA’s William Lloyd later revised the logo. The plastics industry has added numbers inside the logo to designate the type of plastic used in production of products such as toys and drink bottles. There are currently three predominate versions of the logo used in green printing.

	If the recycling logo is displayed on a dark background, it means that the product is manufactured by using recycled materials. It also guarantees that the product is made from 100 percent post-consumer waste (waste generated from households, commercial and institutional facilities, with no further propose).
	A recycling logo which has a percentage sign (%) inside the mobius loop, denotes that the product is made up of the indicated percentage of recycled material. For instance, if the symbol surrounds type that reads 50%, the product claims to contain 50% recycled material.
	The recycling logo that appears on a light background signifies that the entire product is “recyclable”. We are told that this version of the recycling logo was also intended to claim that at least 33% of the population in the distribution area has easy access to collection and drop-off facilities to recycle the product, but we suspect that this requirement is widely ignored by manufacturers. FYI, virtually all paper is recyclable, so this is a pretty weak claim for green printing. You should maintain a healthy skepticism of "green" companies that print on "recyclable" paper.

We hope that this clarifies the proper usage of the logos. We have vector versions of all versions of the logo available for our customers use - just request them from support@barefootpress.com and we’ll send them to you. If you are participating in our green printing program, our green rhino symbol will indicate both the recycled content and the use of soy inks in your project.

Scott Kyle, Principal at Full Scale Architecture in Richmond, VA, contacted us with an unusual idea: he wanted to print business cards in the greenest possible way. Being a letterpress printer himself, he wished to employ our antique Chandler-Price in the process. Taking the idea of recycled paper to the next level, Scott saved up chipboard packaging cartons for months and sent them to us, all neatly trimmed down to 8×10 sheets. Some of them were cereal boxes, some from toys and ice cream pops. Our personal favorite was a PBR carton!

Scott designed a two color card that was printed in cyan with a very dark blue soy ink overprint for the type. We printed them on the back of the carton paper and round-cornered them. The result, we think, is a striking marketing piece that shouts green printing in a way most projects can’t. Check out the pic below, and look for them on our portfolio page coming soon.

Thanks to Scott for helping us challenge convention and create special identity materials. This is the kind of job that makes being a green printer fun! Check out Scott’s architectural work at www.fullscalearchitecture.com.

On March 3rd, 2008, Raleigh’s original green printer turned 21. We were so busy we forgot to celebrate! Thanks to all of our loyal customers who have helped us reach this milestone in our company’s history! Obviously, we can’t be successful unless you are successful.

Please remember that green printing is an integral part of your sustainable marketing initiative. It’s worth the effort, and your customers will appreciate that you are setting an example. Recycled paper, vegetable-based and soy inks, and low VOC, water-miscible solvents are all part of the finished product when you order from us, so let people know it! Together we can make a difference.

One of our favorite local environmental groups is Triangle Land Conservancy. The organization pro-actively preserves forestland and natural space by buying it and placing it in a conservation trust. They have made a strong commitment to green printing by printing all of their promotional material on high post consumer waste content recycled papers using soy inks.

The organization is holding a fund-raising and awareness event June 21st from 3-7pm. This is from their newsletter:
Didn’t make it to TLC’s 25th Anniversary Gala? Here’s your chance to celebrate TLC’s 25th Anniversary, no tux necessary. Join your fellow TLC members at the Irvin Farm (Jones Ferry Road, Orange County), a 269-acre mix of farmland and forest donated to TLC by the late Elinor and J. Logan Irvin. Enjoy a BBQ dinner (vegetarian options), music by The Bluegrass Experience, guided hikes, catch-and-release fishing, REI’s “PEAK” program for kids and lawn games.

Advance tickets are $10 per person (kids under 12 free); tickets at the door are $15. Get your tickets now online at greenjamboree.org!

This sounds like a lot of fun for adults and kids alike. Check out the Triangle Land Conservancy at www.tlc-nc.org.

Exxon/Mobil has arguably the worst environmental record of any of the big oil companies. Remember the Valdez disaster? To date, the company has spent more money on PR regarding the incident than it has spent on the actual cleanup itself. The effects of that one spill are clearly evident in Alaska still.

Why are we bringing up this old news?

Your green printer received this mass email from a couple of sources, and while we are no fan of junk email and usually don’t put much stock in this kind of thing, we thought this campaign had merit for more than just the reason stated.

Here is an excerpt from the email:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the ‘don’t buy gas on a certain day’ campaign that was going around last April or May! It’s worth your consideration.

Here’s the idea: For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

The real reason gas prices are so high has nothing to do with supply of crude. The gas companies would love for you to believe that, because it justifies their obsession with drilling in Alaska and everywhere else that’s been off limits to them. Industry propaganda also blames the “Arabs” for jacking up the price of crude, using racism to deflect criticism and obfuscate this fact: the real reason we are paying so much to gas up our cars is simple greed.

The past decade has seen unchecked consolidation in the gasoline industry; Exxon/Mobil and BP/Amoco being the most visible. With every merger, the companies shut down refineries. It is this lack of refining capacity that has pushed gas prices through the roof. This was done by design, for the express purpose of driving up prices. And don’t hold your breath for this government to step in and bring consumers any relief.

These companies are making obscene profits, as CNN Money reported yesterday: Record oil prices netted Exxon Mobil a $10.89 billion profit in the first three months of the year, sharply higher than a year earlier… The profit was enough to be the second-highest U.S. corporate profit on record, falling just short of the record $11.66 billion Exxon Mobil earned in the prior quarter. The profit in that quarter came to $1,385 a second…

There are lots of great reasons to boycott Exxon/Mobil. There are plenty of other gas stations around to buy gas from - and most of them offer lower prices… Hit Exxon/Mobil in their wallet like they’ve been hitting you in yours. They deserve it.

NORWALK, Conn., April 17, 2008 - Do you consider yourself environmentally aware? Are you the Chief Recycling Officer of your household? What about at work?

Results of a North American survey released today by Xerox Corporation to measure environmental consciousness in the workplace, found that work colleagues may have some strong objections to those who don’t walk-the-green-talk at the office.

Almost 40 percent of U.S. respondents said their number one office environmental pet peeve was mindless printing resulting in abandoned pages at the printer, followed closely by leaving the lights on in unused offices (37 percent).

A review of the other top office pet peeves included: lack of recycling bins (33 percent); excessive air conditioning or heating (29 percent); excessive use of paper products – like plates and cups (27 percent); coworkers who don’t recycle (27 percent) and coworkers who print single-sided instead of double-sided documents (24 percent).

“As we talk with our customers, we often find that environmental consciousness is left in the recycling bin that sits in employees’ garages. While they’re eco-friendly at home, the office is still breeding ground for bad habits,” said Patricia A. Calkins, vice president of Environment, Health and Safety at Xerox. “Yet, as this survey found, it takes a few small steps to make a big difference. Step number one: use the technology available in the office to cut back on paper use, reduce waste and reduce energy consumption. That can mean simply setting the office printers to default to two-sided printing, which cuts office paper use in half. Or, replace single function printers and copiers with multifunction systems, decreasing energy use.”

Gender and generations
The survey, which polled 1,569 office workers across the U.S. and Canada, revealed that U.S. women (91 percent) consider themselves more eco-conscious than their male counterparts (86 percent). Age had a noticeable effect on environmental consciousness too. Of U.S. workers aged 18-34, 27 percent ranked themselves as “extremely” or “very green” versus the next generation of employees aged 35-44 (17 percent).

The Full List

The top ten environmental pet peeves among U.S. office workers:
1. Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)
2. Leaving lights on (37%)
3. Lack of recycling bins (33%)
4. Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter (29%)
5. Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc. (27%)
6. Coworkers not recycling (27%)
7. Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can (24%)
8. Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing (24%)
9. Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files (24%)
10. Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home (23%)
For smarter ways to ‘green’ an office of any size, visit www.xerox.com/environment.

About the survey
Harris Interactive conducted the survey of 1,569 adults aged 18+ working in offices in Canada and the United States from March 4 - March 9, 2008 on behalf of Xerox Corporation. Respondents were asked to rate their environmental consciousness and select which common office practices with negative environmental impact bothered them. The U.S. data were collected online and were weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, annual household income, race/ethnicity and propensity to be online.