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At a recent trip to New Orleans to the SGIA show I was impressed by the profile of sustainability within the US marketplace. The SGP (the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership) certainly seems to be gaining traction, approval and acceptance in the US from both the wider print industry and the print buyers themselves. This superb example of professional collaboration is severely lacking in Europe and possibly the rest of the world. We can learn from the US, with their experiences after three years of implementing a system of sustainable best practice alignment for printers to gain accreditation to SGP. This certification means that a print buyer can trust the print is produced to a provable, audited, sustainable standard.

The SGP are a partnership of a number of associations, private companies and consultants who work together to provide help and support for printers who want to gain accreditation to the scheme. This support includes mentoring for those who need it in order to achieve SGP Certification. SGP has become the only industry standard for the certification and continuous improvement of sustainability and best practices within print manufacturing operations.

Working since 2008, the SGP has proven its worth as print buyers, specifiers, agencies and marketers are now asking for their retail and POP print to be produced to SGP standards. That is compelling indeed. And with many of the leading brands in the US being truly global players, it won't be long before the SGP will extend beyond the confines of the US and into other regions. I hope.

And the good news is that the SGP are not some kind of police force. They are a professional and supportive group of people who are passionate about print and improving the image of our profession. It is clear, we are all in this together, and this approach is clearly lacking in Europe. We are too fragmented. There are too many of us trying to achieve the sustainable goal in isolation. In the modern world we need to just work together. Nobody 'owns' the green moral or professional high ground. To say it is too complicated due to language and culture is a weak cop out. It can and should be done. So Europe – stop working in islands, get together and work it all out. EcoPrint Europe next year could prove to be the perfect platform to help to realise this.

Obviously the US has an advantage with one single language, but we in Europe do have to 'up our game' and begin the dialogue to unify the market in Europe behind a logical standard. It probably makes sense for this SGP initiative to be extended into Europe, obviously with a number of key stakeholders in the market here, so let's hope this happens. There really isn't a lot of value in reinventing the wheel in my opinion, especially when leading global brands are already recognising it.