SGIA Journal Graphic November/December 2016 - 35

case study
Sustaining Future Generations: A Case Study
The SGIA Sustainability Recognition Program encourages SGIA member
companies to create and adopt sustainable business practices and to set an
example for other companies to follow. Each year, SGIA honors those who
have completed the program with the Sustainability Recognition Award. Plum
Grove, Inc. and Tradeshows And Displays, two SGIA member companies
who merged in 2014, were awarded for successfully implementing a strong
sustainability system into their operation. SGIA sat down with Peter Lineal,
Founder and Sales Manager at Plum Grove, Inc/Tradeshows And Displays, to
hear their story.
Can you tell us a bit about the beginning of your sustainability journey?
When Plum Grove merged with Tradeshows And Displays, it brought with it
an ongoing green-friendly program that took a step up in 2008, and it has been
going greener ever since. In 2010, Plum Grove won the prestigious Governor's
Award for sustainable business practices.
What were some efforts and/or sustainability practices exercised at
Tradeshows And Displays?
To start, we are 100-percent wind powered, and have been non-carbon fuel
sourced for our electricity since 2009. We also buy green-friendly materials
from green-friendly manufacturers as a preference. If available, and if acceptable to the client, we use materials with high recycled content and paper produced from trees grown on tree farms. While people lament the trees used in
printing, in reality, if it weren't for the economic value of forests, there would
be no forests. The proof of this is that there are more forested acres today than
100 years ago.
Another interesting thing is that our offset printing company uses soy-based
inks, and we recycle almost everything at our factory - most weeks, our landfill waste stream is about equivalent to a large home garbage tote.
We also developed a "green-friendly" logo for our clients to use on their
printing to encourage others to be green friendly. It helps expand the reach of
our efforts, and it's an outward-facing tool and voice for sustainability.
Other changes we made were to upgrade all lighting to LED and other
low-consumption electricity, and our light switches have been replaced to
be "auto-on" and "auto-off." Building windows have also been re-caulked to
conserve heat and air conditioning.

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efforts on social media with
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Can you speak to any challenges that you faced during these transitions and
implementations?
With the merger, Tradeshows And Displays moved into expanding the green
practices of their manufacturing even further. This has not always been easy,
as the materials used and the recycling streams are much less developed for
the small waste generators.
What were the driving forces behind moving towards more sustainable practices? Consumer demand, moral obligation, etc?
In our own experience, we do not see that there is very much consumer interest in green practices when shopping - but it is another strong reason to do
business with Tradeshows And Displays. Plus, it doesn't cost much more to
practice sustainability in manufacturing once the processes are in place. We
believe that it is the right thing to do for our planet and for future generations.

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November/December 2016 | 33

SGIA Journal Graphic November/December 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SGIA Journal Graphic November/December 2016