Supporting sustainability in graphic arts and printing, with Rick Bellamy, Inflecton and Dscoop

Gary Pageau of the Dead Pixels Society talked with Rick Bellamy, managing partner of the Inflecton and executive chair of Dscoop. In this interview, Bellamy talks about developing sustainability standards and best practices for the printing industry, and how this can drive a triple bottom line for benefiting people, the planet, and profits. He also talks about the upcoming Dscoop Edge World Expo, where the Dead Pixels Society will host photo-specific education and events.

Bellamy has more than 20 years of leading and successfully navigating companies through inflection points, utilizing a unique triple bottom line (People, Planet, Profit ) framework to guide companies to a future of sustainable growth that generates business value.

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Transcript

Erin Manning  0:02  
Welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixels Society Podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing and IP.Labs.

Gary Pageau  0:18  
Hello again and welcome to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau. And today we're joined by a returning guest, Rick Bellamy, who is the managing partner of Inflecton and the Executive Chair of Dscoop. Hey, Rick, how are you today?

Rick Bellamy  0:34  
I'm doing great, Gary, how are you?

Gary Pageau  0:37  
Doing? Great. Now the last time you were on you were the CEO of RPI and since have moved on to and Inflecton, what is Inflecton and what is it do?

Rick Bellamy  0:48  
Inflecton is a consulting company that helps business owners predominantly in the graphic arts find their triple bottom line? And what is a triple bottom line? That's about putting your people first. So building a strong culture where it's diverse, and put your people first that is beneficial for the planet. So it takes climate action, and also does that in a way that grows profits? Right? So at the end of the day, you're in business to grow profits. So why are those three things important? Well, we we all know that as business leaders, it's been a real challenge to attract and retain high the highest and best talent. And increasingly, the diversity of your group, or of your company is helping to define your success, right? If everybody looks like you, you're not as successful. The second piece of that on the climate side. In today's environment, the climate and climate change is the number one challenge we have as a planet. And almost every consumer products company right now is focused on that. And there's a lot of misconceptions about the climate action that is possible within a business, and how to do that in a way that improves your bottom line. And at the end of the day, we all want to approve our profitability, too, right? You can't you can't invest a lot of money in the first two unless you're making more money on the third. So it's all about triple bottom line for companies.

Gary Pageau  2:27  
Well, it seems to me like a lot of the discussion in the past has been about profitability doesn't matter. As long as we're saving the plan, what you're saying is you can have all three, with a better different approach.

Rick Bellamy  2:39  
And I think the three legs of the stool are critical, right? You, you must have all three legs of that stool, if you're going to be successful in today's business environment.

Gary Pageau  2:49  
Let's talk a little bit about what sustainability in the graphic arts world actually means. Because there's a lot of different words out there. There's a lot of different phrases around different belief like you know, you know, recycling papers that is that sustainability and process or is that not what we're talking about? Is there an agreed upon industry definition for sustainability?

Rick Bellamy  3:16  
Boy, sustainability is such a big umbrella phrase, Gary, you know, it's I like to break sustainability down into, as I said before, my triple bottom line, because without the people, you can't be sustainable without the climate action, you're clearly not going to be sustainable without profits, you're not sustainable. So I break it down into three. And so you know, many companies are using Diversity, Equity and Inclusion around one measurement of sustainability. My biggest focus right now is on climate action. So that's really carbon reduction, which I think applies in a big way to the graphic arts industry. So I'll focus my time there right now. Because I think there's a lot of misconception about that. As you as you mentioned, hey, I'm recycling. So I'm sustainable. Right, right. Well, no, it's more complicated than that. Right? Well, I changed my light bulbs. I changed all my light bulbs to LEDs. So that's good, right? Yeah. Yeah, that is good. But what was the impact? So increasingly, when you think about the graphic arts industry, we're serving major consumer products brands, we we serve all the major brands in the world, we produce their marketing materials, we produce their packaging, we produce their display materials. Increasingly, they are under pressure both from their customers. So the consumer who is increasingly looking at the climate action that you're taking as a brand, and by regulatory requirements, so you know, a lot of us controversy around ESG and the environmental, social and governance reporting, but it's not a concept that's going away, and it's actually growing. And in Europe, they're ahead of us on the regulation side. So as a graphic arts provider to a brand, most of these brands have started their journey, their climate action journey, several years ago, and they're moving down this path. And what does that path mean? They are measuring their carbon footprint. So how much carbon is generated in my business? From sourcing materials from my employees coming to work from the energy that I'm burning? From? The way I operate my machinery to what am I throwing away and one of my recycling, and what am I composting all of these impact your carbon footprint. And unless you have a baseline, you don't know what your improvements are doing. Right? So this is the big change. We have as an industry been very focused on climate action for quite a while, right, recycling only made sense. Let's recycle. Hey, you know what, I reduced my power bill. So it made sense for me to change my light bulbs. The difference is now we have to measure it. Now we need to say my carbon footprint is 10 megatons a year, how am I going to reduce it to five and then put in place a continuous improvement program that allows you to say, okay, hey, I'm, I'm trying to get to five in a year? How do I cut it in half?

Gary Pageau  6:44  
What do you mean by carbon footprint? I mean, you hear that phrase? A lot. But is there a way to just, you know, give me one or two sentences where it explains what that actually means to the everyday business owner.

Rick Bellamy  7:01  
Carbon footprint is essentially the carbon that is utilized to produce your services or products, and deliver them to your end customer. But there's

Gary Pageau  7:13  
ways you can reduce us X amount of carbon, and then offset it with Y amount of carbon. So you have like, net amount of carbon, is that correct?

Rick Bellamy  7:26  
There are offsetting programs. Okay. So you know, oh, and that is part of part of anybody's program, that there are clearly ways to offset it. So let's give a good example, if I'm utilizing paper, as you know, my substrate that I'm going to print on, quarterly made out of carbon, right, I am going to continue to print on paper, and that's going to be carbon usage. Not going to ever get that to zero. So how do I offset that? I can offset that through biomass offset, so replanting for us, or I can offset that through many any of the carbon offsetting marketplaces which are sequestering carbon in a variety of ways which I could go into a lot of detail, but I want because it will for everybody. There's a lot of controversy around carbon offsetting because it is becoming a financially very lucrative space. And carbon offsets are like a market. They might be $1, today and $5. Tomorrow, they are moving up and down based on the viability and and the cost of a project. So we are now using the scoop is a good example at the scoop. We are building a consortium right now to help them to build a sustainable future for their business. So we'll be doing that with practical steps. The first one is education. There's a lot of misconceptions about climate action. And so hey, how do we educate our members to say, this is not unachievable? This is the way you do it. And these are the partners you use. So building also collaborative partners to achieve this carbon neutrality that our members can utilize. And because it is a complex subject, it's hard, right? Yeah. It's not a, hey, I'll just, I'll just decide I'm gonna do this and make it work. It's like, okay, where do I start? Yeah.

Gary Pageau  9:38  
Because I mean, it sounds to me like it's, it's nice to be part of your ongoing business process. It's not a project you tackle. It's now integrated into how you're going to be doing everything from ordering your office supplies up to where you're sourcing your paper from.

Rick Bellamy  9:53  
Yep, exactly. No, it is. That's a good way to think about it. It's a change in mindset about how you do your business. So, it impacts every aspect of your business from how your employees get to work, how often your salespeople travel to where you source your materials to, and where you source your power.

Gary Pageau  10:20  
So even factor that in, for example, let's say you have a printing plant, and we'll use St. Louis because that's where the scope is going to be, for example, and the your average employee has to commute 20 miles, you know, round trip a day, you have to factor that in to your business's carbon footprint, even though they're in a tech way, not on the job.

Rick Bellamy  10:42  
Yep, there's various ways to do it, you essentially want to set a baseline like any like any program, and there's a lot of carbon calculators out there. SPP is a good one, for example, which many people have heard about sustainable green printing partnership. Carbon quota has a good one more and more popping up. You input your data, everything from your power bill to where your materials are coming from and what they are. And it will create essentially your baseline. Is it perfect? No, the answer is no. It's not perfect. But it gives you a baseline. And then if you have an employee who says, oh, you know what, I, I'm riding my bike to work now five days a week. Great. Okay, you made progress. Or maybe you put in place a program that says, hey, I'm going to incent my employees to come to work in a different way.

Gary Pageau  11:36  
Maybe carpool or something.

Rick Bellamy  11:39  
Yeah, exactly. Typically, that's not your highest impact. Typically, the highest impact is, hey, where are you getting your power? So I'll give a good example of a company in Europe, a company in Europe, as you know, with the invasion of Ukraine, oil prices and power prices exponentially increased in Europe, this company put solar panels and wind and they power their building with wind and solar. They're not experiencing brownouts and their power bill hasn't gone up. So they've increased their profits. And they're using fully renewable energy and cut their carbon footprint by I think 20%. So nice. So it can be done. Oh, yeah. Another good example is distributed print. By printing, a recent study done in Japan showed that by printing, within one day ground of where your final product was delivering you cut 60% of the carbon out of delivery process. Really? Yeah.

Gary Pageau  12:46  
So So what would be the prior method, like just, let's say you had a central hub, and let's say St. Louis, and you were shipping it to where I am in Michigan, that would be more carbon unfriendly than printing in let's say, Detroit, and then sending it

Rick Bellamy  13:01  
Precisely, precisely. So if your one-day ground, paper is heavy, shipping it via air freight takes a lot of carbon, you're shipping it with when one day ground, it turns out, you cut out a lot of that.

Gary Pageau  13:15  
So in most cases, you're also delivering it faster, too. So the benefit, there would be, you know, customer higher customer satisfaction, because they're getting their products faster with distributed print. And also we're getting a happier planet.

Rick Bellamy  13:29  
Exactly. And it's usually cheaper as well. So bottom line, as I mentioned, it's a triple bottom line, happier people better for the planet, and more money.

Gary Pageau  13:40  
So it seems to me some of the push for sustainability practices really comes. Like externally, as you said, a lot of the consumers are aware of it, they're looking for packaging. And there, it's interesting how much commentary there is now for example, what if you watch YouTube unboxing videos, where part of the commentary is how much packaging is on this? Is it in this thing, this is way too much packaging for this kind of thing. So that's interesting, but I have kind of talked about also, there is sort of a cultural aspect from the marketing side, where you're getting somebody maybe in a marketing position in a company who was looking to reach customers. And you know, they may if they don't think that the process is sustainable, they may choose to do just TikTok videos or something.

Rick Bellamy  14:33  
Precisely. Yes. No, and that's, you know, a lot of people ask why, why is this important to the graphic arts industry? Ya know, Rick, you're on the West Coast. You're a tree hugger. So is that why? The answer is no. Every major brand is driving carbon reduction programs and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in their business, they will choose their partners based on those that are also on that same journey with them. And they have to. So in the science-based target initiative, which is what most people are utilizing, there is a term called scope three. And scope three is when you start to look at your suppliers and reduce carbon by having your suppliers reduce their carbon footprints. Many of these brands are now to that spot. So if I'm the marketing person, or if I'm the person in charge of packaging, I now am required by my chief sustainability officer and by my marketing group, to find partners who are will have a defined target that can be verified externally and have a program to reduce it. And whether that is reduced packaging, whether that is packaging that has an end-of-life strategy displays that have a circularity strategy, or marketing that has a zero footprint. Those are becoming a critical part of doing business. And those that are not on that path, I honestly believe are going to start to suffer in the next couple of years.

Gary Pageau  16:19  
So that's what I'm saying, you know, there's a lot of pressure from the customers, whether it's the end user, the consumer, or the customers, who may be the businesses or brands who are doing this, that this is an important thing to them. So it better be important. And users

Rick Bellamy  16:34  
and consumers are showing overwhelmingly that they're willing to pay. They're making their choices. In a very high percentage, I think, a recent study I saw out of well, I won't quote who it was because I don't not sure. But I'll just say a major consulting company said over 50% of consumers were willing to pay more for a product that was climate sustainable. Now, that comes into greenwashing. How do you define that?

Gary Pageau  17:07  
Yeah, I've heard that phrase too can explain what greenwashing is, because that's not a good term.

Rick Bellamy  17:13  
Greenwashing is very bad. So greenwashing is a term that essentially means I'm going to create a nice marketing campaign without the corresponding science-based targets behind it. And when consumers detect that, we'll just say it is a harsh and swift backlash. So it is much more important today than it was, say, a couple of years ago, that you have real data about what you are doing and what that actual impact is, and that you are factual in your marketing of that the great claims of oh, I've, I've taken this step, and so therefore, I'm green, you need to be able to back that up, because otherwise you can get branded as greenwashing, which is a very bad thing. It's scary.

Gary Pageau  18:12  
So I'm curious, is there a standardized format, people can put things on a website that will say, you know, other than a logo or something like you said, if there's got to be respectable research and respectable formats to present this? Is there a source for that in the printing and graphic arts community where it's something everybody can look at, and everybody can understand, I can imagine there's a lot of variability in the data that can be presented.

Rick Bellamy  18:40  
There are a host of certifications in the graphic arts and printing world, all of them very specifically look at one segment of climate action. So there is not an overall, you know, universally recognized logo or certification that you can get yet. I think that there will be at some point in the near future. It's one of the reasons the scoop is stepping in and building out this framework is not to create a new certification, but then to lend credibility to the existing certifications and processes. Sure, and help it business leaders pick the right partners that will help them on their journeys. Because it is a different way of doing business. It's an it's a new mindset that impacts every aspect of your business. So, hey, who are the partners that I can trust? And then how do I communicate to my customers, effectively and, and and easily of the progress I'm making on my journey? And how do I externally verify that?

Gary Pageau  19:51  
Yeah, cuz I think that is something that what I think people would like to know is, you know, you say you're making this progress. How We How do we know that's true for it's not just marketing speak

Rick Bellamy  20:04  
it well, increasingly external verification is required. And you're seeing that across many of the large companies, so every major audit firm out there right now has an ESG group. So everybody from PwC to you name it, everybody from PwC on has as ESG groups for third-party auditing. There's also a variety of certification groups, I mentioned e STP before they externally certified FSC has an external certification around the material side, there's nobody who's brought it all together yet, short of the major audit firms, I think you will see an increase in that. As it becomes more regulatory compliance focused, which will happen in the next year or two, because of California and the US already exists in Europe. 

Gary Pageau  21:06  
Well, this is all been very dry, but interesting information. Let's talk about something a little more fun, which is Dscoop World Expo. Now you're the executive chair of Dscoop. When is the Dscoop and why is it going to be in St. Louis,

Rick Bellamy  21:25  
we are in St. Louis, because it's in the middle of the country. And it's a global Expo. So we expect to have members from all over the world come in to St. Louis, it is May 7 through the ninth for the it's Dscoop edge World Conference, we expect this to be the best Dscoop edge event ever. We've got Magic Johnson as a keynote, and we've got the drummer from Pink, who does an incredible presentation applying what he does as a rock star and to business. And we're going to have a host of education, from everything from sustainability to how to be more effective in your business operations. So

Gary Pageau  22:14  
and as the throat plug in the Dead Pixels Society will be there with former our own sessions, which you will have already read about in the newsletter by you hereby Demi here this, but I'm the standpoint for someone who hasn't been to a Dcoop before. How is it different than other printing industry conferences because in my view, it is very different it is but I want you to explain to me why it is a different conference than let's say every other printing conference heads out there.

Rick Bellamy  22:44  
This is the real key different shader described as a community. We are not a trade show, the Dscoop is a year-round community PSPs and partners supplier partners to the graphic arts industry. And what does that community really mean? It means we share with each other deeply. what's working, what's not working. A big part of any D school conference is the face-to-face conversations and friends you make some of my best friends and some of my best colleagues and some of my best information come out of my association with the scoop. When I was running RPI, it was responsible for a big portion of my growth. Because it is a community it's not when you think about going to any other trade show. Your wonder wandering around trying to find equipment.

Gary Pageau 23:40  
Exactly. Sure. Sure. 

Rick Bellamy  23:42  
That's an interesting part of this, this conference as well. But that's not what it's about. It's about really getting information that helps you drive your business much more effectively.

Gary Pageau  23:54  
And it is different in some rather than other events because it is almost all-inclusive. I mean, the conference fee includes a lot of your meals, a lot of your parties and receptions and things like that are all all-inclusive, that fee which I like to mention to people when they see it because it's not the $49.99 our bed fee type format. It is definitely more investment. But you will get more out of it. I think

Rick Bellamy  24:20  
I think you get more out of it. And yes to your point. We like to have fun as well. So there's a lot of food and a lot of libations

Gary Pageau  24:31  
Well, good. Well listen, thank you, Rick for your time and for your insight and both into sustainability and into D scoop. Where can people go for more information about and reflect on and what you're doing in sustainability? 

Rick Bellamy  24:45  
Well, of course, you can go to inflecton.com It's inflection with only one I. So inflecton.com Reach out to me anytime as well. And then for Dscoop, please go to Dscoop.com. You will get a lot of information about our sustainable framework, as well as all the other programs that we have for our members. So

Gary Pageau  25:08  
well thank you, Rick, and best wishes for continued success and we look forward to seeing you in St. Louis.

Rick Bellamy  25:15  
Thank you, Gary.

Erin Manning  25:18  
Thank you for listening to The Dead Pixels Society Podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at www.thedeadpixelssociety.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai