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Our commitment |
 View our Sustainability Profile PDF |
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Grand River Printing & Imaging was founded in 1978 in Southfield, Michigan. Over the past three decades we have es-tablished a record of commitment to environmental sustainability. From the early years of silver-based film processing to the present, we have consistently implemented practices that minimize or prevent the emission of pollutants into the environment. Over the years, we have made significant investments in technologies that protect the environment and put in place equipment that is both energy-efficient and reduces plant emissions into the atmosphere. Today, governments, corporations, organizations and individuals are concerned about global climate change and want to be involved in practical solutions to the problem. Scientific sustainability studies have shown that global climate warming is a fact and this state of affairs is very likely due to increases in human generated greenhouse gas concentrations. Important worldwide initiatives are now underway which enable companies to be involved in preserving the environ-ment and mitigating the causes of global warming. One of these efforts - the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and its Chain of Custody certification program - is directed to businesses in the paper, printing and publishing industries. As sustainability has become a larger priority for business, industry and government we at Grand River welcome the opportunity to participate actively in these advanced environmental initiatives. Chain of Custody certification Grand River Printing & Imaging is proud to be the first print media services company in the state of Michigan to achieve a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody certification. The Chain of Custody certificate means that the path taken by raw materials from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution, have been performed in a manner that meets the following requirements: Environmentally appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber and non-timber products maintains the forest's biodiversity, productivity and ecological processes. Socially beneficial forest management helps both local people and society at large to enjoy long term benefits and provides incentives to local people to sustain the forest resources and adhere to long-term management plans. Economically viable forest management means that forest operations are structured and managed so as to be suffi-ciently profitable, without generating financial profit at the expense of the forest resources, the ecosystem or affected communities. The Chain of Custody certification provides a guarantee about the production of FSC-certified products that come from Grand River's printing facility in Belleville, Michigan. From a customer perspective, the FSC label represents a promise that the production controls in Grand River's print processes have been independently verified and that the printed piece complies with the best practices in forestry management. See http://www.grpinc.com/news/images/GrandRiver022707DftCert.pdf Our in-plant green initiatives Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) The Megtec Millenium 8000 unit, purchased when we moved to Belleville, MI in 2004, destroys 99% of the volatile or-ganic compounds (VOCs) emitted by our heatset ovens. This RTO equipment has two important environmental aspects: 1. It allows for considerable savings of natural gas 2. It provides pollution control at both heatset presses. The RTO works by using the vaporized VOCs, given off by the inks, as fuel to maintain combustion temperature to de-stroy the compounds. Therefore, the RTO uses natural gas only on startup and when the level of VOCs becomes too low to maintain adequate temperatures, for instance during long press stops. See http://www.megtec.com/documents/US_Millennium.pdf Economizer Our energy economizer reduces electricity needed to chill process water, by pulling cold air from the outside when ambient temperatures are low enough. This substantially lowers the amount of electricity used by the standard process chillers, which are essentially compressor-based air conditioning units. In addition, our rooftop air conditioning units have an economizing function, which enables them to cool the shop with outside air whenever possible. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economizer Energy Cured Inks One of our presses prints only with UV inks and an energy-cured printing process, eliminating the presence of VOCs as a by-product of the printing process. Another benefit of UV ink is that it does not contain any hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) found in coldset inks. (Heatset inks do not contain HAPs). See http://www.na.flintgrp.com/news/index.html Power factor correction We have installed power factor correction systems at each plant device with significant electrical draw to allow the power company to delivery electricity more efficiently to our machinery. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor_correction Paper recycling In 2007 Grand River recycled 6.47 million pounds of paper (3,234 tons) along with 85 tons of cardboard and 68 tons of aluminum. Each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilo-watts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water! Therefore, in 2007, we saved 55,000 trees, 21 million gallons of oil and 62 million cubic yards of landfill space. See http://www.resourcefulschools.org/facts.html Partnerships Grand River Printing & Imaging has partnered with paper mills and paper merchants active in our market who are certi-fied FSC Chain of Custody suppliers. Among these companies are the following firms: Paper manufacturers:
Paper merchants
Recycled content We are currently offering the following FSC-certified papers with at least 20% post-consumer waste content:
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