Known as Verdigris, the initiative has been set up by graphic arts research group Digital Dots.

It is being run as a not-for-profit scheme and has the backing of companies including Canon Europe, HP, Agfa, Fujifilm, Drupa, Ricoh and Screen.

Findings from the research will be made available to the industry for free, in the hope of educating the industry as a whole.

Verdigris will analyse the issues facing publishers and printers who want to minimise their carbon footprint, while continuing to conduct a profitable business, in a series of articles.

The environmental impact of a newspaper, a magazine, a package, a direct mail piece and a website will be examined in this context, including offset and digital press-based production.

In its first phase, Verdigris will look at various media workflows and publish a series of articles on topics, which will include guidelines on what companies can do to improve their environmental credentials and attain ISO 14001.

The first articles should appear early in 2009, and a website will go live later this year.