BRIGHTON, England — Newspapers throughout Europe are examining ways to reduce their greenhouse gases as environmental issues gain traction.

Cutting the carbon footprint has become even more important in the United Kingdom, where regulators and consumer groups are ratcheting up the pressure on U.K. newspapers.

Ifor Pedley, deputy managing director of Harmsworth Printing Ltd. said HPL has already adopted practices aimed at reducing the printer’s greenhouse emissions.

Starting out

A good starting point, he said during a presentation at last month’s Newstec convention, is for publishers to become familiar with the ISO 14001 standard, which spells out the environmental auditing process for facility and property managers.

To reduce the amount of waste it moves to landfills, for example, HPL purchased compactors to compress the waste. The machines not only create easy-to-manage bundles, but the waste is now transported more efficiently by trucks that can pack in more refuse before traveling to processing facilities.

Several other U.K. printers, meantime, are shredding wooden pallets into wood flakes.

At Johnston Printing, a unit of Johnston Press Ltd., the printer recently established a carbon footprinting task force, said David Crow, divisional managing director.

“Newspapers can help educate their readers about environmental issues,” he said, adding that the industry also has to correct the public perception about the number of trees it consumes each year to produce newspapers.

Recycled newsprint

Indeed, he said, up to 81 percent of each paper in the United Kingdom is produced from recycled newsprint. Publishers are also examining waste stream and transportation issues.

Associated Northcliffe Digital, meantime, launched a green-living Web site, with information designed to encourage visitors to switch to a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Papers can also use the site, dubbed the Big Green Switch, as a resource for their own coverage.

Making a footprint A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced both directly and indirectly in the delivery of a product or service. It’s either expressed as equivalent tons of carbon dioxide or tons of carbon, according to John Sanderson, director of environmental affairs (UK) for UPM Kymmene (UK) Ltd.   Sanderson A true carbon footprint includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydroflourocarbons. Direct greenhouse gas emissions come from a variety of sources, including motor vehicles and business travel, energy production, landfills and air conditioning. Indirect greenhouse gas emissions are comprised of purchased electricity generated from coal, oil or gas (fossil fuels) in addition to the manufacture, transport and storage of secondary raw materials and the use of disposal and recycling of manufactured products. To cut footprinting, many companies are touting the use of carbon offsetting. This technique negates the release of carbon dioxide by one of two ways: either removing the same amount of CO2e, or equivalent tons of carbon dioxide, from somewhere else, or by taking steps that avoid the release of CO2e from another source in the first place. The typical 96-page tabloid paper in the United Kingdom is responsible for the production of 200 grams of carbon.   Starting steps Want to reduce your carbon footprint? According to KMP, you should conduct a full lifecycle analysis, examining these issues: •Agree to the scope of your organization’s footprint. •Commit to managing your footprint. •Measure and report. •Set targets. •Develop strategy to reduce your direct footprint.