Waterless Offset Printing Establishes De Morgen as World’s Truly Green Newspaper

	The "Copenhagen" Edition of De Morgen was printed waterless on this green 100% recycled paper. Four section and 36-pages in all, the edition featured a seperate 16-page Kopenhagen climate change section shown at the top.

Of all the world’s printed products, newspapers are the most difficult to produce in a manner that exceeds the most stringent environmental regulations.  IWPA member Eco Print Center(EPC), part of De Persgroep (Belgium) publisher of De Morgen, produced the 7-18 December Extra Edition to coincide with the Climate Summit held in Copenhagen with a combination of paper and offset printing that lays claim to the “greenest” newspaper ever published.
While other newspapers may have paid editorial service to the Copenhagen event De Persgroep pulled out all the stops to acknowledge the event with a 16 page editorial section devoted entirely to educating and informing its readers.  The lead headline on the front page of the 36 page edition carried the headline “We have the whole world in one hand.”

The brilliant concept was conceived by the De Margen’s editorial chief editors, Yves Desmet and Klaus Van Isacker along with the marketing/commercial departments who not only have to deal with 16 pages of editorial content and promotion, but also work closely with the technical department headed by Wim Maes at the EPC.  All the technical coordination and creation of content had to be completed within a very tight time schedule.

The Kopenhagen section begins its editorial coverage with the headline, “we’ve got the whole world in one hand.”

Clever Promotion; Readership Reacts

De Morgen is not a free newspaper, in fact it costs 1,10 Euros per copy.  On the front page of the climate issue was a special free offer to readers, a DVD of the film “The Age of Stupid” which stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: “why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?”  The response to this offer totaled 100,000 DVD copies for every sold newspaper (100,000).  While distribution of 100,000 free DVDs was expensive, its public relations value that supported De Morgen’s environmental advocacy is inestimable.

And there was more valuable exposure, De Morgen’s edition received coverage in all media including radio and television.  Early in the morning of the issue date, De Morgen editor was on national radio to explain the reason why the newspaper was green.  Later in the morning Wim Maes appeared on the same radio station to explain how the paper and print process is really eco friendly.

The EPC/De Morgen Green Credentials

To begin with, De Morgen’s environmental edge was enhanced by its extensive environmental editorial material.  The articles cover the causes, the effects and the politics of global warming.  All articles are generously illustrated with graphics.  There is also information about the 11 things the consumer can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
The next most noticeable feature is the green colored paper called MFS (Brite, UPM Color).  Producced at UPM-Kymmene’s French factory, Chapelle Darblay PM 3, their environmental declarations include 100% recovered paper, 100% PEFC and 100% FSC certified along with carbon profile.  This profile declares UPM’s EMAS and ISO 14001 status along with a carbon profile which describes their carbon footprint for the manufacture of the MFS paper at their plant in France.

On page 4 of the front section of the paper is a sidebar entitled “The green is Really Green” which describes the environmental benefits of the De Morgen/EPC print production process.  Among the advantages they describe are a reduction of 1,000,000 liters of water per year, enough to sustain 30,000 people for one year.  The editors point out that their waterless press is the only one of its kind in the Benelux countries.  And, not only are solvents and chemical additives reduced or eliminated, but also they have reduced paper waste by 40%.  This issue also contains the IWPA’s widely recognized butterfly logo.

	De Morgen was the world’s first newspaper to display the IWPA’s butterfly logo for its waterless printing.

It is certain that waterless printing has not received as much recognition from a single printed piece.  We know many printers who would be envious of such exposure.  But, we can all be encouraged by the fact that the waterless printing process received so much publicity.  We should all thank EPC/De Persgroep for their efforts on our behalf.
For more information go to:
http://www.epc-nv.be/