We believe in better business

As an offshoot of the Daily Graphic, the Graphic Business (GB) has shared in the almost seventy-year life of the flagship newspaper of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, and our survival has not been without producing some type of waste, given that we are a newspaper.

Newspaper production has traditionally been based on content creation, pre-press, press and post-press, with ramifications for the planet at each stage.

The everyday actions involved in content collection for both advertisement and news, which are the key elements for manufacturing newspapers, have an impact on the environmental, economic and social fabric of our business.

Pre-press is about what-goes-into-the-paper for a day. The question though is what effect does it carry in terms of communal impact?

Press is the printing process, or the main procedural step related to newspaper production, which is typically divided into printing and folding.

At the press, we use newsprint reels, ink, several printing towers and folders that run several hours within a week.

Post-press comes with its associated issues such as extra copies, logistics and transportation.

With this operation, we recognise our impact on the environment, economy and the society and seek to embark on a journey that will empower our audience and customers everywhere with authentic information, which includes the talk about the creation and re-orientation of businesses towards sustainability.

With this in mind, the business has also adopted best practices and has signed on to the Environmental Protection Agency’s policy on impact assessments of our operations on the environment.

All our processes and their effects do not deter us from setting the sustainable business agenda because we need to join in the discussions to create the consciousness in line with protecting ‘Our Planet.’ 

Indeed, a key component of the 2023 Budget was the announcement by the Finance Minister of the government’s plan to collaborate with Graphic Communications Group to use local resources to produce paper in the near future.

We are therefore conscious of  making an impact and creating sustainable business practices.

As Bachmann puts it, sustainability is no longer a niche topic. “The concept of sustainability will always have its relevance, it has become the subject for a contemporary assessment of progress and responsibility, freedom and culture.”

For us at the Graphic Business, our publisher, the Graphic, is an industry leader with the commitment to excel in preserving our trade for the next generation. 

Therefore, the need to integrate sustainability into our business with innovative ideas has been paramount as captured in our core values.

But what exactly does it mean to be a sustainable business?

The Graphic Business believes that it goes beyond having a formal governance of sustainability in place.

It requires a firm commitment to work towards incorporating and implementing the elements that address a business’s effect on the environment, and on society right from the top to the bottom. It also goes against waiving ISO certificates to show compliance.

It requires leadership and implementation strategies and firmer commitment to doing good.

In the extractive sector, it is noteworthy to cite examples for reclaimed lands in the western region which is currently under oil palm cultivation for the livelihood of the communities.

Likewise, in many other sectors, companies have adopted Doing Good as a major concept to further position their brands for the future. The idea that businesses are not isolated from their communities, and that adopting good corporate practises would in the long run impact plosive on their bottom line.

It is with this in mind that we are starting from today the sustainable business page.

We hope, with the help of our business partners, to collaborate to share examples of what it means by doing good and what sustainable business can do to an economy such as ours.

Graphic Business, as always, will pioneer this and use our credible brands to see that the country develops and businesses flourish.