Quality Management – ISO 9001:2008

The Lowe-Martin Group is committed to continuous improvement, innovation and customer satisfaction. To support this commitment, we maintain a group-wide quality management system that treats quality as a basic business principle, and have a full in house quality assurance plan and quality management system in place. This system recognizes our employees, our customers and our suppliers, along with developed quality assurance systems, procedures and practices, as the keys to providing products and services that consistently meet or exceed customer needs.

Our ISO 9001 system lies at the heart of our continuous improvement. The system generates a combination of management reports, financial data, ISO Corrective Action Requests, spoilage, utilization, productivity and sales reports. These tools help us monitor the progress of our strategic plan. Improving our customers’ time-to-market for critical projects, producing hard and soft cost savings, streamlining work processes and improving market share are all achieved through continually improving the way we deliver our services.

Forest Stewardship Council®  (FSC®) Certification

To help support responsible forestry as a method of preserving the environment, the Lowe-Martin Group achieved certification from the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Chain of Custody (CoC) in March 2003.

The Forest Stewardship Council is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that promotes the responsible management of the world’s forests through the CoC tracking of forestry practices to end product use. FSC provides internationally recognized standards, trademark assurance, and accreditation services for companies, organizations and communities interested in contributing to responsible forestry practices.

The Lowe-Martin Group strongly believes in the importance of preserving the environment. Our management system ensures that we conform to the strict CoC requirements necessary for FSC certification. These practices allow Lowe-Martin to provide a credible link between responsible production and paper consumption in a highly environmentally sensitive market while also providing our customers with the option of environmentally sound products.

Environmental Choice Program (Eco Logo)

Further evidence of the Lowe-Martin Group’s commitment to the environment is our certification under the Environmental Choice Program for Lithographic Printing Services (CCD-041) since 1999 and under Digital Printing Services (CCD-141) since the creation of this new category in 2004.

Our environmental activities are directed towards lessening the impact of our industry on the environment. We are one of the first printing companies in Canada to qualify for Environment Canada’s Eco Logo certification under its Environmental Choice Program. Our practices, which are audited by an independent firm, eliminate the use of products with benzene, halogenated solvents and isopropyl alcohol, restrict the use of Volatile Organic Compounds, reduce photo-processing waters and wastewater in our facilities, increase the level of recycling, and establish tough sewer effluent targets. We have since used our experience in the Eco Logo program to help additional organizations become Eco Logo certified as well, including the House of Commons Information Services department and the Senate Material Management department. We have also worked closely with TerraChoice, an environmental consulting company, to produce the Environmental Choice Program certification requirements for digital print.