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GREEN SCANNING:

First steps towards green large format scanners

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What is ISO 14001?

ISO 14001 is the minimum requirement for any wide format scanner manufacturer who wants to claim to be "green".

In order to bring the process of green compliance forward, we welcome government legislation that offers large format scanner manufacturers carrot-and-stick financial incentives, like federal tax credits in the case of Energy Star compliance in the USA, and legally-binding requirements like RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) in the EU. However, if business is to truly embrace green issues it needs to learn how to turn environmental planning into more profitable manufacturing.

The great benefit of ISO 14001 is that it shows manufacturers that being "green" can be profitable.

ISO 14001 grew out of the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992. It was adopted by 172 nations at the conference. ISO 14000 is a group of standards which includes ISO 14001 which addresses environmental management and pollution prevention. Its great strength is that it shows large format manufacturing companies that profits can be increased by addressing environmental issues.

ISO 14001 provides potential and existing customers with the assurance that the scanner manufacturer is dedicated to improving the quality of the environment through effective management systems. These systems are designed to protect both man and the environment from the potential impact of scanner manufacturing activities while helping to maintain and to improve the overall quality of the environment.

Accredited ISO14001 practitioners such as Xerox, Contex / Vidar and Colortrac Imaging Systems (SuZhou) must be fully committed to continuous improvement, emergency response planning and independent monitoring of all environmental impact areas including energy and water consumption, sewage discharge, airborne emissions, hazardous materials and noise levels. They are required to understand and measure the company's effect on the environment and to seek continuous improvements in combating the causes of local and global pollution.

Few would disagree that China in particular urgently needs to adopt such measures to address its huge contribution to global pollution and the damage its booming economy does to the health of its own citizens. (And soon to the health of the world's finest Olympic athletes!)

The commercial argument for ISO 14001

"How do we stand to gain?" is the question at the heart of most corporate responses to the environmental issue. Colortrac see a leaner, cleaner, more profitable manufacturing operation resulting from their subsidiary's recent ISO 14001 accreditation.

Graham Tinn, Colortrac's Managing Director, said "Colortrac has reviewed its production procedures and is now committed to sustainable wide format scanner manufacturing. ISO 14001 certification means that Colortrac Imaging Systems now use less water, energy and other resources in producing SmartLF scanner components. These savings make perfect sense from a commercial point of view".

Such savings come from an environmental management system that allows the early identification of opportunities for cost savings. This can stimulate procedural and or technological changes that reduce the total cost of a large format scanner manufacture and or improve its sales value. Besides the perceived environmental benefits of implementing an ISO 14001 environmental management system other commercial benefits lie in the areas of operations, marketing and finance.

Importantly, ISO 14001 accreditation shows the potential wide format scanner buyer that the manufacturer has a]. met environmental expectations and b]. in terms of selling on technical specifications meets international government purchasing requirements. Scanners4CAD believes that there should now be an international agreement whereby all governments agree to purchase ISO 14001 products only within a reasonable time, say two years. This will give wide format scanner manufacturers ample time to put their factory in order.

ISO 14001 brings an ethical feel-good factor to the sales floor. Certainly this is something which governments and corporates with their bigger budgets should demand in order to bring the large format green scanning agenda forward. As most wide format scanners now have similar specifications and give similar results for technical drawing applications, we would hope that in future an important question to ask when deciding on the best scanner, price and performance included, is "which of these large format scanners has the best green credentials?"

Which scanner manufacturers are fully ISO 14001 certified?

At present, only Colortrac's main assemblies built by Colortrac Imaging Systems (SuZhou) are ISO 14001 compliant. However, half a green scanner is better than none. It is a small beginning but an important step in the right direction for Colortrac.

All of Xerox's manufacturing operations have been certified to ISO 14001 since 1997. HP and Océ maintain ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems to ensure their products and supplies are safe for the environment and customers. However, both HP and Océ scanners are OEM'ed from Contex who is also certified to ISO 14001. As Vidar and Contex share the same factory, (Contex owns Vidar), Vidar claims an ISO 14001 certificate as well.

Image Access are not ISO 14001 certified but all their suppliers are. "Since we only assemble in-house, ISO 14001 would not make sense for us", they say.

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