Written by Jan De Roeck
Marketing Director, Esko
In recent years, the conversation around sustainability in print and packaging has shifted. Driven by doing the right thing for our children and grandchildren – ensuring a healthy planet for future generations – well-intended commitments have matured into something far more urgent, concrete, and aligned: a collective industry effort to reduce environmental impact at scale.
Additionally, societal pressures and legislation are pushing the industry toward sustainability, making responsible action not just a moral imperative, but a regulatory necessity.
The launch of the Sustainable Print Manifesto marks a defining moment in that journey. It represents what many of us have long advocated for — a unified, principle-driven framework that guides the entire print and packaging sector toward measurable, achievable sustainability outcomes.
And I am proud that Esko is one of the founding members of this initiative.
As someone who has built a career at the intersection of print technology, packaging development, and industry collaboration, I can tell you this: the manifesto has arrived at exactly the right time.
A Common Language for Sustainable Print
One of the enduring challenges in our industry has been the fragmentation of sustainability standards and approaches. Brands interpret sustainability one way, converters another, and regulators a third. Technology suppliers often sit somewhere in the middle, trying to meet expectations that are moving targets.
The Sustainable Print Manifesto cuts through that complexity. It establishes shared, practical principles that every company in the value chain can adopt.
These include:
- Designing for circularity
- Reducing waste at every stage
- Adopting low emission energy
- Selecting safer materials and inks
- Improving water stewardship
- Leading with data and transparency
What makes this framework powerful is its practicality. These aren’t distant, idealistic dreams; they are steps we can implement today. And by aligning with them, the industry sends a clear message: sustainable print is not a competitive differentiator, it is a collective responsibility.
Esko at the Center of the Packaging Value Chain
The reason Esko joined the manifesto from day one is simple: we have both the responsibility and the capability to accelerate sustainable transformation.
Unlike companies that contribute to only one stage of packaging creation, Esko technology touches nearly every step, from specification to finished pack.
We operate at the point where sustainability decisions are made, and where their impact can be influenced most effectively.
This impact becomes tangible across multiple decision points in the packaging workflow:
- Cloud-enabled platforms bring stakeholders together around a single source of truth, reducing miscommunication and preventing avoidable waste across the workflow.
- Well-structured specifications reduce complexity and enable a right-first-time mindset.
- Intelligent design tools improve material efficiency before the first prototype is produced.
- Automated workflows eliminate rework and prevent waste that traditionally accumulates across manual processes.
- Advanced color management and print planning tools reduce emissions, lower chemical use, and minimize production errors.
- Palletization and logistics optimization software maximize transport efficiency — ensuring we ship products, not air — and reduce transport-related CO₂ emissions.
This end-to-end presence is the core of Esko’s value, enabling our customers to translate sustainability commitments into real world carbon reductions.
From Footprint to Handprint: The Real Impact
While every corporation must examine its own footprint, the most meaningful sustainability contribution comes from our handprint — the positive impact our tools enable for the thousands of brands, converters, and prepress experts who use them daily.
If the manifesto defines the direction, our handprint defines the impact. In practice, that impact becomes visible in areas such as:
- Rightsizing: Structural design tools enable right-weighting and reduce material use.
- Operational efficiency: Workflow automation cuts out reprints, remakes, and avoidable waste.
- Energy usage: Hardware such as the XPS Crystal eliminates the need for mercury lamps and reduces power consumption.
- Transport emissions: Palletization software optimizes loading and reduces unnecessary truck journeys.
- Data insights: Cloud platforms centralize validated sustainability data, enabling designers and operators to make better informed decisions.
Esko’s role in the manifesto is more than symbolic. We are not just endorsing sustainability — we are engineering it into the everyday reality of packaging creation.
Industry Collaboration is No Longer Optional
The manifesto also recognizes something essential: no single company, brand owner, or converter can “fix” sustainability on their own.
The environmental impact of packaging is systemic and interconnected. Material selection affects recyclability, artwork decisions affect waste, specification accuracy influences energy use, and logistics shape carbon intensity.
The only way forward is coordinated progress, built on shared principles, transparent data, and a willingness to collaborate beyond competitive boundaries.
This is why we joined the manifesto — not to promote products, but to align around shared principles and measurable progress.
A Call to Action: Let’s Turn Principles into Practice
The Sustainable Print Manifesto is not a destination. It is the starting point. It gives us a compass — and now the industry must move with intent.
At Esko, we are already embedding the manifesto’s principles into our strategy, our product roadmaps, and our conversations with customers globally. We are investing in data driven sustainability capabilities, expanding automation, modernizing workflows, and strengthening partnerships across the supply chain.
But the real transformation will come from what you — the brands, designers, prepress professionals, converters, and print specialists — do with these principles.
Sustainable print is no longer an aspiration. It is an expectation. And with the right tools, it is absolutely achievable. The manifesto provides the direction. Our role is to turn that ambition into action. Together, we can deliver packaging that is smarter, cleaner, and ready for a lower carbon future.
