The print industry has been through a lot of changes in recent years, with sustainability being one area that has rightly received extensive attention. Fortunately, we already have the pleasure of working with some of the world’s greenest suppliers. Sustainable Collaboration is key to building a greener future.
We’re working together to highlight the intrinsic steps that must be taken in the print industry to become more sustainable. Below are our combined thoughts on the current and future landscape of sustainability in print.
As our customers know, we are one of the go-to green print and signage firms in Yorkshire. As evidenced by being finalists in the Digital Printer Awards 2019: Green Company of the Year award! It’s all made possible by our dedicated team that all share the same passion to create a more sustainable environment. We have been very happy to make another giant leap forward in this endeavour, our solar project. We are installing 256 tier one photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of our facility, to generate 62,000kwh a year!
Along with our green energy, we operate using a recycling policy for acrylic, di-bond and all paper and card products. Everything is taken independently of regular waste, which is handled by our waste management facility, Prism, who have a strict no- landfill policy.
We have also taken on a PVC recycling initiative for banners and vinyl. The waste PVC gets taken away to Blue Castle recycling facility where the PVC is shredded then used to make alternative products.
In addition to this, we also partake in Allstar’s EcoPoint programme that helps to turn business’ unavoidable CO2 emissions into new woodlands. Vehicle emissions are a particular problem across the UK, accounting for 19% of the country’s total carbon footprint in 2012. Therefore, to combat this, we have used the EcoPoint programme to plant over 70 trees this year alone, to offset the emissions we can’t avoid.
At the heart of our eco-friendly mission is our passion to seek out and stock the most innovative, environmentally friendly products on the market. Antalis have been key in providing us with sustainable alternatives to PVC. They have also been making huge strides in sustainability, they have migrated energy suppliers to ensure they are running on 100% renewable energy or fully offset gas, for all sites in the UK. This has helped with reducing carbon emission by over 36% since 2015. It’s no wonder to see why they are certified to both the international standards for Energy (ISO50001) and Environmental Management (ISO14001).
Antalis have predicted that the future of sustainability lies in promoting the circular economy, they are working with manufacturers to source effective packaging products using fewer single use plastics and other non-recyclable materials.
HP’s technology provides us with the perfect solution for producing quality prints while still making a sustainable impact. The water-based technology on offer addresses a full spectrum of health and environmental concerns from ink chemistry to indoor air quality.
In addition to the recycled materials that they have incorporated into their products, they provide us with one of our greatest assets in the fight for sustainability. HP Latex inks use a water-based formulation to address every environmental concern from production, to application, to post-print, to disposal. It does this by rethinking the traditional methods of printing and innovating in ways that only HP could. Such as developing water-based inks containing up to 70% water providing odourless, low-emitting prints, making them non-combustible and non-flammable avoiding Hazardous Air Pollutants and problematic reactive monomer chemistry and ozone generation associated with other ink types.
