Communicating environmental performance of printed products

VTT conducted the LEADER project (2007-2010) to study the environmental impacts occurring during the life cycle of different print products. Communication was selected as one of the focus areas to increase the usability of the life cycle assessment and carbon footprint results among the industrial stakeholders. One key issue was how to present the results in an informative manner for non-expert stakeholders. The environmental issues in the print products' value chain are for the most part communicated between companies, by professionals and very few actors have direct contact to the end-users. The needs and also the ability to make use of new environmental information and new tools vary a lot within the value chain. An informative way to present the results of the LCA and carbon footprint case studies was to produce case specific presentation material in the form of printed and electronic brochures, titled fact sheets. Besides the numerical results of the LCA- and CF-calculations, the brochures include basic information about the research methods, products, assumptions made in the study and life cycle stages included. Guidance for interpreting the results was also added. This paper shows the development steps of the brochure and how the stakeholders have used it and what further needs they have for environmental communication of print products.