The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP), an authority in sustainable printing certifications, has announced that Hub Labels, a converter based in Hagerstown, MD, USA, has been certified as an SGP Printer. Hub Labels is the second facility in Maryland to become certified.

Early on, Hub Labels recognized the benefits of becoming a more sustainable operation and was certified through TLMI’s Label Initiative for the Environment (LIFE) program in 2007. TLMI endorsed SGP in 2018 and has since become an SGP Resource Partner. Many former LIFE facilities have applied for SGP certification and Hub is the third facility to complete that migration.

“When we started looking into the requirements for SGP certification, we knew a lot of our content from LIFE would be transferable but outdated,” states Jesse Hood, Hub’s senior quality and improvement manager. “We created an SGP Team and decided that we would completely revamp our environmental sustainability program to align with the SGP criteria. We conducted a gap analysis to identify where we needed to make updates to our sustainability efforts and then tackled those projects one-by-one. It took just over a year to complete the requirements to successfully pass the SGP audit.”

Hub Labels’ journey to become SGP certified was a natural progression for the company. In 2009, Hub introduced linerless labels, a label band ideal for skin pack trays, to the United States marketplace. A label without a liner equates to less label waste and reduced shipping costs. Linerless labels placed Hub at the forefront of the sustainability movement within the label industry.

Thomas Dahbura, owner of Hub Labels, embraced the challenge to “Go Green” in more areas of the business.

“Producing labels has the potential to be a dirty business. A lot of waste is produced during the manufacturing process,” explains Dahbura. “Everyone wants to be responsible stewards of the environment, but time and cost are the big obstacles that need to be overcome. So, I removed those obstacles for my team and empowered my employees to identify new opportunities to reduce our environmental footprint. The results have been fantastic. Some projects we’ve undertaken include replacing light bulbs with LED bulbs, turning off lights when a room isn’t in use, purchasing a hybrid electric car for company trips, and most recently, we purchased a corrugated shredder to repurpose cardboard boxes as packaging material.

“Last summer, we successfully became a 100% landfill free print facility through a partnership with a company that turns waste into a clean burning alternative fuel,” Dahbura adds. “We have incredible momentum and will continue identifying and conquering sustainability projects. In 2020, we set a goal to reduce our bubble wrap packaging by 50% Going through the SGP certification process has revitalized our environmental program, and it’s great to see everyone excited about protecting our environment and our community.”

Print facilities interested in eliminating waste, reducing energy consumption, transitioning to sustainable materials, and winning new business from organizations that require sustainable printing practices should visit www.sgppartnership.org/certification to learn more about becoming SGP certified.