DIC Corporation has launched HYDRAN™ GP series of environment-friendly waterborne polyurethane resins. These new resins have a higher solid content than conventional water-based polyurethane resins and contain no amines, helping customers to shorten process times and lessen odors, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These resins deliver an outstanding performance that is comparable to that of solvent-based products, previously seen as difficult for waterborne polyurethane resins. The HYDRAN™ GP series is available globally and is suitable for a range of applications including artificial leather, coatings and adhesives.

AI's real gift to print and packaging is not a tool. It is the chance to move your technology leaders from firefighting to strategy. I spent years as the CIO of a print company. I know exactly how that job goes, because I lived the version nobody puts in the org chart. You do not spend your days setting strategy. You spend them keeping the lights on. Password resets. A down press that needs its integration babied back to life. An EDI feed that broke overnight and a customer who needs their file by 10. The strategic project, the one that would actually move the business, gets pushed to next quarter. Every quarter. For years. That is not a personal failure. It is the structural reality of IT in print and packaging. Most shops spend the overwhelming majority of their technology budget and their people just running the business, keeping legacy systems alive and answering the same requests over and over. Whatever is left for building, for growth, for anything new, is a rounding error. We have accepted this for so long that we stopped calling it a problem. We just called it IT. In print, our foundation is rarely clean. The estimating logic lives in a spreadsheet that has grown legs over 15 years. The job history sits in an MIS nobody has fully trusted since the last upgrade. The pricing rules live in one person's head. That is not a reason to wait on AI. It is the first work AI readiness actually requires. Before you accelerate, get the foundation right. Every dollar you spend fixing it comes back the first time a model runs against data it can finally trust.

Transcontinental inc. announces an important milestone in its sustainability journey. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has approved TC Transcontinental’s near-term science-based emissions reduction targets. From now on, these targets will serve as TC Transcontinental’s primary measurement of progress on its sustainability objectives, including energy efficiency, clean energy procurement, and the commercialization of sustainable packaging solutions such as recycle-ready packaging solutions as well as the integration of post-consumer resin (PCR) into packaging products. “We are now in a better position to support our customers on their own sustainability journeys, and better suited to focus our actions on what matters the most to fight climate change,” said Alex Hayden, Senior Vice President, R&D, Sustainability and ESG, TC Transcontinental. “As an industry leader in Packaging, Retail Services and Printing, we know our stakeholders expect us to mitigate climate risks while capitalizing on growth opportunities. We believe this new commitment is fully in line with those expectations.”