Druckerei Konstanz

Since 1945 Druckerei Konstanz GmbH is a subsidiary of Südkurier and since then responsible for the printing of the newspaper. In 1990 both, Druckerei Konstanz GmbH and Südkurier, move from the city center of Konstanz to the industrial area of Konstanz. The relocation got necessary due to the change to offset printing (flat printing process). In 2009 Druckerei Konstanz decided to invest in the environmentally friendly waterless offset printing and a new, more efficient processing system. Besides newspapers the new technology enables to refine a various number of high-quality and outrageous products.

The implementation of the waterless offset printing led to enormous savings. While 480.000 liters of water were needed in 2008 this water consumption was fully eliminated after the implementation of the new technology. The 24.000 liters of chemicals that were contained in the water and the printing plates were eliminated as well. Additionally the amount of paper waste in the printing process was nearly halved – since paper waste causes around 60 percent of the CO2-footprint during the printing process this fact is particularly remarkable. Also the quantity of solvents, machine oil and cleaning cloths was significantly reduced.

Additionally to the modern printing technique a cogeneration unit that was installed in 2013 was another step towards an environmentally friendly production. While common power plants (fossil sources) suffer from bad efficiency and e.g. modern gas power plants only convert 38 % of the used energy into electricity, cogeneration units allow the combined use of electricity and waste heat directly at the location of generation. In this way 80% of the used primary energy can actually be used at Druckerei Konstanz. Cogeneration units are an important contribution to energy revolution. The main advantages are lower energy losses, lower emissions as well as in a discharge of electricity grids through decentralized electricity generation. For Druckerei Konstanz this means besides environmental protection noticeable financial savings.