Earth day may be over, but when it comes to environmental consciousness, every day can be green for those of us who deal with printing.
The reality is that printing has not traditionally been an environmentally friendly process. From the ravages of large swaths of forests cut down to provide paper, to dangerous chemicals found in inks, the industry has been partially responsible for a fair amount of damage to the environment. That doesn’t, however, have to still be the case.
The most obvious way for print buyers to do their part to save the environment is to use ‘green’ paper (and we aren’t talking about color here). Use recycled paper. Better yet, use no paper! If you can create a PDF of your document and send it to your end users, you are taking green printing to a new level. However, if that’s not an option (and let’s face it, we aren’t in the paperless age yet), there are many paper options that are environmentally friendlier. Use paper that contains 100 percent post consumer waste, or use a paper that is created from non-tree products (such as hemp). If you can convince a client that coated stock isn’t necessary, eliminating it helps the environment as well. Look for paper which doesn’t use chlorine as part of the process (it is often used to whiten paper).
Secondly, if you can economically go digital, do it. Tonar based printing (digital on-demand printing) uses non-toxic ingredients that are less harmful than most inks used in offset printing. If you have to go offset, for economic reasons (for bigger runs it makes more sense), then check with your printer and see if they can use inks that are more environmentally friendly, like soy and vegetable based inks.
Last, but not necessarily least, ask your printer where they get their power from. Do they use renewable sources of energy, like solar or wind? If they don’t, encourage them to look at it as an option. There are a number of printers who are beginning to use such forms of energy; give them the chance to quote on your job.