This is a guest article written by James Fox, Imago Publishing Limited.
Every piece of the puzzle: A sustainable and transparent supply chain is essential to Imago Publishing’s production and its operations.
Since 1980, Imago has provided its publishing customers with access to the global print marketplace. Their knowledgeable and collaborative teams are based across the world, with sales offices in France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Brazil and Australia, plus production offices across South East Asia.
As a company that creates products that primarily rely on the use of raw materials including wood and paper, Imago understands that they need to work continuously to ensure that their sustainability goals are met, alongside achieving the highest possible ethical standards.
As a company that creates products that primarily rely on the use of raw materials including wood and paper, we understand that we need to work continuously to ensure that our sustainability goals are met, alongside achieving the highest possible ethical standards.
Debbie Knight, Director, Imago Group.
Becoming FSC certified in 2008 marked a huge step in the conscious effort for Imago to work more sustainably. This change enabled Imago’s customers to use responsibly sourced materials, and have a complete chain of custody on their project from the forest through to the delivery of their finished goods, which they can highlight on their product with Imago’s FSC label. Imago is able to offer FSC certification on a growing number of products including; books, toys and games made with paper or wood, calendars, diaries, organisers, and wooden stationery.
To ensure all FSC criteria are met throughout the entire production process and supply chain, Imago has a dedicated team who oversee FSC projects and stay up to date with changing FSC regulations. They have also developed their in-house CRM to cater for the FSC process and facilitate FSC data collection and reporting. Imago also implemented an in-person overseas FSC training program for their global offices, which ensures all staff involved understand the FSC process thoroughly.
FSC certification is a major factor contributing to Imago’s success in the German market, and since becoming certified in 2008 at least 80% of all paper and wood-based print production for German publishers is FSC certified, a percentage that is ever-growing year on year. And, in 2020 alone, over 475,000 individual FSC certified items were produced across Imago’s global teams. – Martina Scheible, Sales Director for Europe, believes that "FSC certification is a major factor contributing to Imago’s success in the German market, and since becoming certified in 2008 at least 80% of all paper and wood-based print production for German publishers is FSC certified, a percentage that is ever-growing year on year."
Challenges can arise when producing for the different global markets that Imago works in, as the logo must be in the correct language and format for the market in which it is sold. Recently a Spanish co-edition had two separate labels as one edition was being sold exclusively in the Catalonia region of Spain, thus requiring a different FSC label to the global Spanish language edition that is being sold in other Spanish-speaking countries.
As the FSC auditing process is intentionally rigorous, Imago continues to develop its systems and processes to ensure all criteria are met. Recent tweaks to Imago’s CRM ensure only FSC suppliers can be selected for FSC projects, and a dedicated team help to ensure consistency and deal promptly with any issues. As multi-site annual audits are conducted with staff from each site, a challenge for our auditor this year needed to virtually audit California, UK, and Australia in one day!
For other businesses thinking about FSC certification, it is important to understand that this is not a simple ‘box-ticking’ exercise. To be an organisation that truly cares about the world’s forests and wants to act now to protect the environment, they will need to embrace the chain of custody process and put in adequate resource to meet the uplift in work required.
This is a guest article written by James Fox, Imago Publishing Limited. Click here to visit their website.