In January the 1st 2009, KLS became the first carbon neutral printing company in Denmark. KLS has 60 employees and produces all kind of printed matters such as magazines, brochures, catalogues, display materials, and banners. KLS has a wide range of customers including publicly and privately owned companies and organisations. In November 2008, KLS won the strategy prize in Climate Cup 2008 due to the company’s vision of being climate neutral in 2010 and because of it’s ambition to influence customers and business partners to engage in a more climate oriented manner.

Strategy

KLS made a landmark decision in 2007: We wanted to become the most environmental friendly printing company in Denmark, and we wanted to be carbon neutral no later than at the end of 2010. Since then, we have focused our work on these goals, and we are proud to have become the first "carbon neutral" and "climate neutral" Danish printing company. KLS has as the first printing shop in North Europe achieved the certification of “climate neutral” through the Norwegian company CO2focus. Additionally, KLS has been certified by the FSC and the Nordic eco-label Svanemærket, which ensures that the production of print affects the climate and the environment as little as possible. In 2007 we began our journey towards a more effective and climate oriented business process. This journey will never end, but will instead only become more ambitious. Our main goal is to reduce our own CO2 emission by 95% from 2008 to 2013. This reduction will mainly be realized through cut in the consumption of electricity and heating as well as the substitution of gasoline cars with electric cars.

At KLS we have not limited our scope of influence to merely cover our own business. Instead, we want our customers and suppliers to engage in the process of reducing carbon emission as well to ensure that the liability of the climate and the environment are reduced as much as possible. As a result of this KLS have created a collection of different types of paper which is produced with the lowest CO2 emission. In this way we are able to advice our customers to select the types of paper, which are most eco-friendly, but at the same time show that our costumers do not have to compromise between price, quality and the environment. Every paper standard is named “climate” and not a well recognized brand name to encourage our suppliers to improve their CO2 emission and thereby earn a place in the climate collection, which we advise our customers to choose. In this way we put pressure on the paper producers to consider the environment to a higher degree. In addition to this we also educate and inform our employees about climate change and carbon reductions on a regular basis to motivate and inspire them to take action themselves.

Action Plan for 2011 to 2013

1) Carbon Footprint analysis

• KLS has conducted a carbon footprint analysis in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) and has purchased EUA carbon credits to compensate its emissions.
• Based on a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) KLS calculated an individual carbon footprint on each print job to show customers the amount of emissions generated from each print. We also advise customers on how to reduce carbon emissions, for example, by selecting another type of paper with less related carbon emissions. By getting costumers to prefer more sustainable paper standards, KLS has the opportunity to contribute to a huge reduction of CO2.

2) Energy consumption

• We have already achieved some of the goals that we have put forwards. Since 2007 we have reduced our own electricity consumption by 16%, while at the same time experiencing considerable business progress which has lead to an increase of the productivity of the company. Although this shows how committed we are about our climate and environmental strategy, we wish to continue this development. Our new goal is therefore to reduce 10% more by 2013 in addition to what we have already accomplished.
• We have renovated our heating system with the aim of using the surplus heat from our printing machines to provide heat to the rest of the building. With this rebuild finished, we will almost be self-sufficient with heat. We will at the same time constantly monitor any alternative solutions that would contribute to a more eco-friendly heating system.
• Additionally, we have planned a series of improvements of the building of KLS. Among other things we intend to insulate the building and thereby reduce the heating consumption even more than we have already managed to accomplish. We have also decided to replace our currently, traditionally black roof with new white roofing in the summer of 2011, which will reduce the energy consumption for air conditioning in the years to come. At the same time the white roofing has the ability to reflect the rays of the sun in a way that can counter the problems of global warming, and thereby this replacement will contribute to reaching our main climate and environmental goal.
• Month by month we publish our energy consumption in order for the employees to notice the progress and to motivate the employees to participate in the energy reduction process.

 3) Renewable energy

• KLS participates in a climate partnership with DONG Energy with the purpose of achieving greater energy savings and to use these saving funds to invest in more renewable energy. In addition to this, the partnership also includes KLS buying renewable energy from the three new windmills DONG Energy have build in 2009 at Avedøreværket – only 300 m. from the location of KLS. We will in the future continue using energy produced by wind power.

4) Transportation

• KLS has decided to replace all the gasoline driven company cars with electric driven cars. This course of action has to be completed before the end of 2013. The process has already been initiated, which means that KLS at the moment has one electric car and one electric truck, which is used to distribute printed matters. This is an accomplishment of the strategy from 2007, which stated that 30% of the company gasoline cars had to be substituted by electric cars by 2010. To clarify just how serious KLS takes their strategy on the climate and the environment and how integrated the initiatives are at the executive level, the first gasoline driven car that was replaced by an electric car was the car of the CEO. The purpose of this project is to reduce CO2, but also to show others that electric cars not only are the future, but the present as well. From January 2011 all purchases of gasoline and diesel cars have ended. In other words, KLS will from now on only acquire electric cars.

 5) Production

• As explained in the strategy section, at KLS we intend to influence our stakeholders to engage in a more climate friendly mode of work. In 2010 we managed to have 7% of all printed matters climate labelled. We hope to improve this, and expect therefore that 25% of all print will be climate labelled by 2013. To secure this development we continue to inform our costumers and suppliers about the benefits of a strategy that incorporates the climate and the environment, why it is important to do so, and how it can be accomplished.

6) Residual carbon emissions

• From January the 1st 2009 and forward KLS has and will compensate the residual carbon emissions of the company with the purchase of EUA carbon credits.
• If the customer wishes to compensate the carbon emissions from the paper production, KLS offers to purchase UN issued emission credits regulated under the Kyoto protocol (CERs).

 7) Revisions

• Each year KLS will calculate the company’s Carbon Footprint and compensate the residual emissions. The entire process will be certified and audited by CO2focus.