Precision Group unites IT & ESG for SGP+S Level 3

Australian print and mail business Precision Group has achieved Level 3 certification in the Visual Media Association's Sustainable Green Print + Sign program and aligned its environmental reporting with ISO 14001, supported by an integrated IT and data strategy.

The Melbourne-based, family-owned company positions its SGP+S accreditation as part of a wider push to treat environmental, production and client information under a single data governance model.

Its management links this approach with a focus on internal IT development rather than off-the-shelf sustainability software.

Precision Group is one of a small number of businesses in Australia certified at Level 3 in the SGP+S scheme. The program sits within the Visual Media Association's broader Sustainable Green Print framework, which aligns with ISO 14001 and uses independent audits and ongoing measurement of environmental performance.

The company states that its progress under the scheme has come from a close partnership between its IT development and environmental, social and governance (ESG) teams.

They report into a single operations structure that covers systems, workflow, compliance and future planning.

Cory Hall, Founder and CEO of Precision Group, said internal people and systems design have been central to its approach rather than reliance on a single sustainability product.

"At Precision Group, the reason we hold Level 3 Sustainable Green Print + Sign (SGP+S) certification and ISO 14001 is not because we discovered a 'magic platform', it's because a small group of people inside the business - our IT Development team, led by Dave Arvaji and Kit Loi, and our ESG and Compliance Analyst, Roger Phillips - have treated sustainability and compliance as a shared problem to solve."

The business has built its environmental tracking around its existing management information system and production workflow. The platform captures environmental data at the point of work. It records details such as stock type, print format, press used, finishing route and whether a job uses certified or standard materials.

This information then moves through the same systems that handle job scheduling, costing, invoicing and inventory. The company says this approach keeps the ESG view tied to specific jobs, machines, locations and suppliers rather than separate carbon models.

Structured data exports feed the company's carbon and compliance tools. These tools use records of substrate use, energy consumption, transport activity and waste volumes. They normalise this data against actual production output.

Precision Group has linked this environmental data architecture with its information security and compliance programs. The company applies common access controls, logging rules and data retention settings across environmental, production and client information.

These controls are designed against requirements from SGP+S audits, ISO 27001 for information security and PCI DSS for payment security. The business argues that this single backbone reduces duplication and supports both sustainable production and secure data handling without separate systems.

People-first focus

Hall stresses that the main decisions sit with people and process rather than specific tools.

The company's internal teams start with questions around what environmental "good" looks like in a live production environment and which numbers production staff can use during daily work.

They also consider how to balance rigorous standards such as ISO 14001, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS with simplicity for frontline users. The firm's IT and ESG specialists have built processes where environmental, operational and security data are treated as one discipline.

Platforms such as production workflow software and ESG reporting tools were chosen and configured after this analysis. Environmental performance information now appears in the same place as job scheduling data, inventory levels, client records and access control settings.

This design is visible in day-to-day details. Each job ticket carries environmental attributes and risk factors as well as quantities and deadlines. Waste volumes are reconciled against actual production outputs rather than estimates.

Solar generation data is compared with throughput so staff see relative efficiency instead of raw kilowatt readings.

Hall links that integration to internal expectations on culture and data discipline. He argues that sustainability outcomes depend on staff who challenge existing processes, protect data quality and insist on usable systems.

Joined-up governance

Inside Precision Group, ESG and IT report through the same operations leader. ESG and Compliance Analyst Roger Phillips focuses on what SGP+S Level 3 and ISO 14001 require in practice and how the business can show that its performance is auditable and repeatable.

IT Development leaders Dave Arvaji and Kit Loi focus on how those requirements map against jobs, machines, suppliers and client accounts. They also design data controls that meet both environmental reporting needs and information security standards such as ISO 27001 and PCI DSS.

Together, the team designs processes and data structures that embed environmental information into production and administrative workflows. They aim to avoid situations where sustainability metrics sit in parallel systems or isolated reports.

Environmental information sits within the same governance framework as client and payment data. The company uses the same systems that enforce access controls and audit trails for sensitive information when it supports environmental claims.

Precision Group says this integrated model is particularly important for its clients in sectors such as banking, government and charities. Those organisations often require verifiable data on emissions, waste and renewable energy use alongside existing compliance checks.

The VMA's SGP+S framework sets out a staged path across three levels. Level 1 focuses on waste, compliance and record-keeping. Levels 2 and 3 incorporate energy, water, emissions, chemical storage, carbon reporting and the use of renewable sources.

Hall says his company has invested in solar, emissions reporting, supplier scoring, data integration and SGP+S-aligned documentation since 2022. He adds that the larger commitment has been to the staff who interpret the data, question operating practices and maintain standards.

He argues that the approach offers a template for other firms in the sector.

"If a privately owned printer and mailing house in Somerton can bring IT development and ESG together, reach the highest levels of environmental and information security accreditation, and prove it with real data, then so can the rest of the sector," said Hall.

Precision Group plans to continue using its integrated IT and ESG governance model as it responds to future changes in standards, client expectations and reporting requirements.