Sustainability Champions recognized by SGP Partnership

The SGP Sustainability Champion program recognizes SGP Community Members for outstanding efforts in making the environment a better place to work and live. An SGP Sustainability Champion is committed to positive change, shows passion through leadership, and exemplifies environmental stewardship and activism. Champions look beyond immediate, short-term goals and are committed to making an impact in a larger context.

Chris Rose of Shutterfly was nominated by several people, recognizing his work in achieving SGP certification for its Fort Mill, SC facility. “Chris Rose took up the cause for sustainability almost two years ago. He was excited about the challenge of receiving SGP certification, knowing it would take considerable time and effort,” said John C. Hindman, Senior Manager for Environmental Health & Safety at Shutterfly. “Throughout the process, Chris became very adept at pulling a team together and utilizing all company resources available to him along with SGP telephone consultations, the SGP Impact Tracker and website. Even as our internal EHS resources shifted significant attention to combatting the global pandemic and keeping our employees and partners safe, Chris carried the torch toward SGP certification, which we were able to attain in November 2020. While this initiative involved numerous people on the Shutterfly team, the effort would never have culminated in certification without Chris’ monumental drive in leading the work and pulling the right team and resources together.”

Blake Pace is the general manager of the Primex Plastics Reedsburg, WI facility. “Blake is a firm believer in responsible manufacturing. Along with renewable energy usage, environmental efforts emphasize energy and efficiency audits, reuse and rework of pallet and packaging materials and proactive freight considerations,” said Teri Benning, Primex Plastics in her nomination submission of Blake. “Among many of Blake`s sustainability programs, he assisted in the implementation of smart lighting programs throughout his plant, updating lighting to LED and adding sensors in many locations so that lighting is automatically adjusted based on occupancy. For many years Blake has aided several customers with methods and resources to deal with their plastic waste which has resulted in thousands of pounds of plastic waste staying out of the landfills. He has also implemented policies and procedures to divert hundreds of thousands of pounds of internal reclaim annually from the waste stream. Blake’s strong voice relative to sustainability is apparent in the fact that the president of Primex named him as the chairperson of Primex’s Sustainability Committee. In addition, Blake believes in actively participating in community events including sponsoring Reedsburg’s Concerts in the Park, fundraising for the local nursing home and giving back to our local EMS, Fire and Police Departments.”

For more information about the SGP Sustainability Champions program, contact [email protected].

About Primex Plastics Corporation: Primex Plastics has been a member of the SGP Community since July 2013 as a silver SGP Patron. It is the largest extruder of custom polystyrene sheet in the industry, ranging from monolayer sheet to tri-layer co-extrusion. Primex also extrudes many polyethylene resins, polypropylene, ABS, TPOs, TPEs and PETG. In addition to its extrusion business, Primex, a subsidiary of ICC Industries Inc., is the parent company of Primex Design & Fabrication, and Primex Color, Compounding & Additives. In 2018 Primex consolidated its divisions to become the Primex “One Company”, with research, manufacturing and distribution in six states and the United Kingdom. www.primexplastics.com

About Shutterfly: The Shutterfly, Ft. Mills, SC facility has been SGP certified since November 2020. The Shutterfly family of brands together make up the leading online retail and manufacturing platform for photography and personalized products. Shutterfly is organized into three divisions: Consumer, Lifetouch and Shutterfly Business Solutions. The Shutterfly consumer division helps people make and create products with meaning including cards, stationery, photo books, gifts and home décor. Premium offerings are available from the Tiny Prints boutique and Snapfish store with photo gifts, invitations, stationery and more, as well as the Spoonflower global marketplace for custom home décor. Shutterfly also offers an iPhone and Android app subscription service with GrooveBook that prints and ships a book with up to 100 photos every month. Lifetouch has been the national leader in school photography for more than 85 years and serves more people through partnerships with portrait studios, including JCPenney Studios. BorrowLenses offers high-quality photography and video equipment rentals for aspiring photographers. And for enterprise needs, Shutterfly Business Solutions delivers digital printing services that enable efficient and effective customer engagement through personalized communications and services. Shutterfly is majority-owned by certain investment funds managed directly or indirectly by Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE: APO) and its subsidiaries and affiliates.  www.shutterflyinc.com

About SGP: The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP) is the only certification organization promoting sustainability in all printing processes throughout the United States and Canada. SGP promotes a sustainable print supply chain through best practices, innovation, information sharing and validation. The SGP program encompasses the three pillars of sustainability – people, planet, and profit. SGP partners include 3M, tesa tape North America, Cooley/Group, EMG, FLEXcon, Laird Plastics, New Leaf Paper, Nvent Marketing, Piedmont Plastics, Polymershapes, Sun Chemical, REI, ANN Inc., BrandKey Graphics, Snowball Print Marketing, major print organizations, academic institutions, and other leading companies. www.sgppartnership.org