Episode 3 - Decarbonisation in Print

Host Simon Daplyn of Sun Chemical is joined by Jeffrey Freeman of Cimpress and Dominic Harris of CarbonQuota to unpack one of the print industry's most complex topics: carbon, and what genuinely needs to happen to decarbonise the sector.

Dominic opens with the basics, breaking down what carbon actually is and introducing the three emissions scopes that come up constantly in this space but aren't always well understood, before landing on his simple mantra for any business starting out: measure, reduce, measure. Jeffrey then walks through Cimpress's nine-year carbon accounting journey, from early spend-based estimates through to today's much more granular supplier-specific data, and the surprisingly human moments along the way, including suppliers realising for the first time that they were behind the rest of the market.

The conversation goes deep on data quality, the difference between activity data and emission factors, and why free and paid-for data sources can produce wildly different results. The panel also discussed regional differences in regulation, why California has quietly become one of the most demanding markets in the world, and the tension between disclosure regulation pulling back while product-level requirements keep moving forward regardless. There's a candid discussion of "green hushing," the reluctance some companies feel about publishing carbon data before it's genuinely accurate, and a properly nuanced look at recycled materials, which often carry a higher carbon footprint than virgin material despite being the more sustainable long-term choice. The episode closes with a clear, shared message: measurement has to be a continuous, repeated process, not a one-off report.

Find out more about FuturePrint's work on sustainability: https://www.futureprint.tech

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