Staying on track to sustainable printing inks

hubergroup receives Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute’s Silver Level Material Health Certificate for Gecko gravure printing inks.

Sustainability is one of our core values: “As a printing ink manufacturer, we bear the heavy responsibility to protect both mankind and nature – and we intend to fulfil that responsibility through our products,” said Heiner Klokkers, member of the management board of hubergroup. “That’s why we were particularly pleased to achieve the Cradle to Cradle Certified™ Material Health Assessment Silver-Level. In this model, the waste material of an old product becomes the ‘food’ of a new product, either by composting or by reprocessing. It creates a circular economy that goes beyond conventional sustainability efforts. We are proud to be an active participant in that effort.”

Product safety in compliance with conventions like the EuPIA exclusion list, Swiss Ordinance, and Nestlé guidance, is now the industry standard for packaging ink manufacturers. We take it a step further: Through supply chain integration, we ad transparency and in-depth knowledge of all kinds of raw material; and we have also designed our production process to achieve a specific result, namely to ensure the highest level of product safety in printing inks.

In addition, hubergroup cares about the environmental footprint of the printing ink it manufactures. There are specialized organizations that provide certifications for reducing or eliminating negative impacts on the environment. EPEA, the Cradle of the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) is one of them, providing a perfect tool for us to monitor and understand the impact of our products on the environment with a holistic approach. The assessment process itself gives clear indications of where and how to minimize their influence on the environment, and helps us to become more sustainable day by day.

In mid-2017, we were the first printing ink manufacturer to receive a Cradle to Cradle certification for our products for sheetfed printing. Today, we offer a variety of Cradle to Cradle certified offset inks for food packaging and commercial printing. The product range is compliant with food safety regulations for food-safe packaging, both for direct and indirect contact. And it also includes water based overprint varnishes.

Recently Gecko ink series received the Cradle to Cradle Silver Material Health Certificate for the Gecko Green Line Premium series. Gecko Green Line Premium is designed for flexo and gravure printing of flexible packaging applications.

Lutz Frischmann, Global Product Director Flexible Packaging, states, “Sustainability is an integral part of product development at hubergroup. Motivated by our customer Töpfer Kulmbach and by Carlsberg’s project “TogetherTowardsZero”, hubergroup has widened its effort to design a specific solvent based product portfolio. I am proud that our efforts are bearing fruit and that we are now offering the first solvent based Flexo and Gravure inks carrying the Silver Material Health Certificate. We are already experiencing a high level of customer interest as a result.” In addition to the Material Health Certificate, a variety of Gecko products are certified and meet the requirements of ‘OK compost’ and ‘OK compost home’ from VINCOTTE, a Belgian-accredited inspection and certification organization that monitors product safety and reliability.