L.I.F.E. program leads green efforts for The Label Printers

The Label Printers chooses Tag and Label Manufacturer’s Institute Inc.’s Label Initiative For the Environment (L.I.F.E.) to guide the company’s ongoing efforts to become more environmentally friendly. The Label Printers owns and operates two facilities in Aurora, Ill., manufacturing and distributing labels and packaging products to thousands of customers in 25 countries globally.

“We decided that we wanted to explore an environmental program for The Label Printers because we wanted to make our existing green efforts more structured, focused, and visible,” says George Tommasi, director of human resources, Illinois EPA Compiance Representative, and L.I.F.E. team leader at The Label Printers. “We looked at investing in a number of different environmental programs. One of the main reasons we chose L.I.F.E. is because it is designed for label converters and we felt that we would get better results from a program that came from people who understood the printing industry — specifically label printing.”

The Label Printers’ green efforts had typically grown out of an ISO/CQIP environment. Individuals within the organization would offer suggestions on how to make incremental quality improvements and/or incremental cost savings by doing things like reducing the use of solvent-based inks, changing lighting in the plant, and recycling scrap.

“L.I.F.E. gives us a way to formalize and perhaps speed up what we were already doing,” says Lori Campbell, general manager, The Label Printers. “It will give us the means to have a green program with progressively greater impact.”

The first goal of the L.I.F.E. team is to learn more about the program, and then go through the process of establishing a stake in the ground on their existing efforts.

“We need to look at what we have done to be a good environmental steward over the years, and then we can identify our L.I.F.E. goals, and how to accomplish and measure those goals,” Mr. Tommasi says. “L.I.F.E. provides both a self audit and an external audit to help us identify areas that will allow us to reduce our environmental footprint, and lessen our environmental impact.”

The Tag and Label Manufacturer’s Institute/L.I.F.E. has partnered with NSF International, The Public Health and Safety Company, to build the external audit.

“Being green is a no-brainer,” Ms. Campbell says. “A program like L.I.F.E., done right, means you’re reducing waste and therefore cost, improving operations, getting your employees engaged and thinking, and being a good citizen of the planet Earth — all at the same time. We’re looking forward to seeing the team’s plans come to life.”