A Short Tale of Green Printing AND Money Saving

This is a short tale with a happy ending.

It’s a true story of a customer who awoke suddenly in the night with the great idea of seeing if she could make all the printing of her marketing materials much greener – and do it at a lower price.

Well, it’s something that common sense would say is tricky at best. Green printing the whole project  is bound to make life a pain in the bum – finding a printer who can tick all the boxes AND save money is surely going to be a thankless task.

Green Printing is something we should all consider

It turns out, the problem was entirely solveable.The printing services company she turned to rose to the challenge.

So what did they do?
They identified the main areas that need to be resolved to make sure the print project would be as environmentally friendly as possible.

• Carbon-offsetting (for print process and transportation)
• FSC or PEFC accreditation (making sure the paper is from sustainable and Eco-sources)
• Inks (vegetable-oil based)
• Biodegradable laminates (so the waste product will rot down more quickly)

They called lots of suppliers to see  how it could be done – some ticked some of the boxes but not others. Others were already on their database and showed the right accreditations and skills but didn’t have the capacity.  After the research, they had a handful of suppliers who were right for the job and they chose the best fit from there.

And the end-result?
Well, the accreditation of the printers and paper-suppliers ensured that all paper was sourced from sustainably-managed forests (in non-sensitive areas) by workers with decent living standards. The entire chain of delivery from forest to printer  was carbon neutralised and more trees were planted than felled. Delivery from printer to customer was offset through the landmark trust. All materials used by the printing services company were created from environmentally-sustainable sources and will break down quickly and naturally when recycled.

And the client was delighted with the job and found that the Green Print version was actually cheaper than their non-eco alternative!

A fantastic result for all and surely a real taste of how we’ll all be buying print in the future? I mean, if it’s cheaper, sustainable and carbon-neutral AND gives great results – why wouldn’t you???