Kodak awarded customer Drukkerij de Bij with its inaugural Global KODAK SONORA Plate Green Leaf Award, for continuously demonstrating outstanding efforts to reduce their environmental impact through a variety of initiatives and best practices. As the first global winner of the award, Kodak presented the Drukkerji de Bij executives with a 5,000 euro donation to Suus & Abel Sustainable, a charity organization that was co-founded by Drukkerji de Bij whose mission is to make children aware of their own sustainable future. In just two years, Suus & Abel has grown into a professional organization that teaches children about sustainability and how to serve as sustainable ambassadors who will take care of their surroundings.

Drukkerji de Bij uses energy efficient equipment and renewable energy and monitors energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. It also monitors water usage and extensively recycles paper, cardboard, packaging, aluminum plates, batteries and electronic components. In addition, the Dutch printing company uses bio inks, alcohol-free solvents and FSC certified and recycled paper during the printing process. The company proudly promotes its sustainable practices to customers and vendors as a unique differentiator.

There has been a longstanding focus on environmental issues in the commercial printing industry and customers are continuing to demand products that reduce their environmental footprint. The award is named for KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates, known for eliminating the processing step required by traditional thermal plates and providing significant energy, water, and waste reductions without requiring printers to make sacrifices on productivity or print capabilities. Drukkerij de Bij has been using KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates for years, supplied by AteCe Graphic Products. Kodak is seeing rapid growth in new SONORA Plate adoption with 16% of its current plate portfolio shifting to SONORA Plates. The continued adoption of SONORA Plates worldwide underscores the industry’s demand for more sustainable printing solutions to address new applications and opportunities, all while increasing profitability.

Patrick Hoeve, AteCe; Pim Nijenhof, Kodak; Norbert van Schie, Owner of Drukkerij De Bij; Robert Price, Kodak; Niek Holtus, Kodak

The KODAK SONORA Plate Green Leaf Award, launched in 2013, is a program recognizing excellence among Kodak customers that are leaders in environmental initiatives. Award entrants are judged on a range of criteria, including management practices to improve energy and water efficiency, participation in local community sustainability initiatives and the use of eco-conscious materials and supplies. The winners are chosen from a pool of applications submitted from all over the world. All submissions were reviewed and scoring was determined by a panel of Kodak judges. The global award winner was selected among the pervious regional winners that include: The New Straits Times Press, Digital Hub, Drukkerij de Bij, The UN Economic Commission for Africa, Grupo RBS, Sing Tao Canada, Modern Litho, Druckerei Aschenbrenner GmbH, GP Tryk, Alfa-Design, Gruppo Konig Print, Shanghai Pica Colour Separation & Printing Co Ltd, NPP, and Beijing Shengtong Printing Co.