If you are a company that needs to print materials for marketing purposes, to create restaurant menus or to fulfill other print needs, green printing practices are the best options!
How can eco-friendly printing benefit your company?
For one, sustainable printing practices can be more cost-effective than traditional practices. In addition, green printing practices deliver the same high-quality products that you expect from conventional printing. Secondly, green printing reduces waste, eliminates harmful chemicals, and protects the environment from further harm.
In the end, partnering with a printing company that uses green practices like using recycled printing paper and eco-friendly inks can benefit your company! Read on to learn more about how you can do your part to conserve the environment by printing with an eco-friendly printing company.
Table of Contents
A Comprehensive Guide to Environmentally Friendly Printing Services
Is Printing Bad for the Environment?
To start, we must analyze whether printing is a green practice or not!
Many traditional printing companies use chlorine-based bleaches for certain types of printing. Toxic chemicals are released into the water, soil, and air when these bleached papers are thrown away. To elaborate, the paper emits methane gas as it decomposes—that’s 25 times more toxic than CO2!
In addition to harmful bleaching practices, many printing companies use technology that emits potentially dangerous amounts of ozone. For reference, ozone (O3) is a highly unstable and reactive form of oxygen that can cause debilitating side effects on the human body.
In reaction, several printing companies have introduced sustainable printing processes. Keep reading to learn more about green printing and how The Print Authority is setting an example of optimal green printing practices.
What is Green Printing?
Green printing is the practice of using renewable energy resources, reducing the use of energy and greenhouse emissions, and using recycled materials.
For example, a printing service may use recycled paper to print their products.
Continue reading to learn about green printing processes and eco-friendly paper practices that are conserving the environment.
Green Printing Processes
Over time, printing companies have taken a look at their production processes to implement more sustainable practices.
As mentioned before, they might limit the use of unnecessary chemicals or use recycled materials!
In addition, progressive printing companies have opted for digital printing presses that use less power, require fewer chemicals and use biodegradable toner.
After all, changing press and other chemicals makes good sense if effective and environmentally friendly substitutes can be found!
In the end, reducing waste lowers cost and makes the operation more efficient and profitable.
These forward-thinking practices are great examples of how printing companies are evolving with the times. Nonetheless, there is more to be done when it comes to eco-friendly printing! In the next section, we’ll look at sustainable paper practices.
Eco-Friendly Paper Practices
The benefits of recycling paper are known widely. Nonetheless, it hasn’t become an industry-standard until recently. In truth, recycled printing paper is both more accessible and more affordable than ever before. Not to mention, some eco-friendly papers today are touted as carbon neutral!
To explain, this may mean that a paper company supports environmentally friendly projects that offset the carbon impact of producing the paper.
Other types of eco-friendly paper are produced using renewable energy, such as wind power.
An even more unusual green printing technique includes using tree-free paper. This unique paper alternative is derived from vegetable products such as bamboo, jute, wheat, straw or agricultural waste.
Whichever eco-friendly paper alternative that you choose, it will print with the same quality that you expect from traditional printer paper. It is also important to note the percentage of post consumer waste in any recycled paper you choose. There are more options than ever available now including paper which is made with 100% post consumer waste.
Eco-Friendly Print On-Demand at The Print Authority
Although the idea has been around for some time, transforming printing to make the printing process greener has come into its own over the last decade.
As a result, The Print Authority has taken a firm stance for eco-friendly printing!
In recent years, The Print Authority has transitioned to environmentally-friendly printing materials, such as soy ink. Soy ink provides more accurate colors and makes it easier to recycle paper because the ink is biodegradable. This means you get better quality prints while helping the environment!
Even more, we’ve updated our offset printing plate system to a more eco-friendly ‘chemistry-free’ process. With this change, we now recycle 100% of our printing plates and our plate machine produces only nontoxic by-products.
Another area where we have had success in helping the environment is in promoting our digital department for short-run documents.
This is environmentally conscious on several fronts. First, short-run documents tend to be more up to date; this reduces obsolescence. Second, digital printing has dramatically less setup than offset printing; we have found digital printing reduces waste by 10% or more. Third, our state-of-the-art digital printing equipment uses a low amount of power and uses biodegradable toner.
In addition to modernizing our services and production processes, The Print Authority has taken steps to improve eco-friendly practices behind the scenes. For example, we eliminated unnecessary paperwork used to process our printing projects—instead, we use electronic forms for purchase orders! We also do our best to group shipments going to the same location into fewer boxes. This reduces the shipping cost and the environmental footprint of the shipment.
All in all, The Print Authority is proud to offer eco-friendly print on-demand that exceeds the client’s expectations and protects the environment.
You’ve read about the impact that The Print Authority has had on the environment. Now, discover the results that clients have seen using out eco-friendly print on-demand services in the next section.
The Print Authority’s Green Impact
About a decade ago, The Print Authority realized people were unhappy with competitor printing companies.
Why?
Some competitors provided low-cost services for large printing orders, stored these bulk orders for future distribution and then destroyed the remaining product when it went out of date. However, these same companies charged tens of thousands of dollars in destruction charges for obsolete printing that needed to be updated.
Additionally, backorders at the printing company were a significant problem because shipping one order in multiple boxes increases the shipping cost (and is not environmentally friendly). This practice wasted valuable paper, energy and time.
The Print Authority fixed this problem.
The Print Authority created an intuitive website and began offering print-on-demand services in place of bulk printing and storage. As a result, backorders were eliminated and 100% of client orders ship within two working days.
What was the result?
This new printing process has lowered client’s cost of obsolete materials by nearly $24,000 per year! In other words, waste is dramatically reduced and clients save thousands of dollars!
Click the dropdown menu to recap The Print Authority’s eco-friendly printing business directives:
- Minimize paper waste. The Print Authority minimizes waste by offering on-demand services in which the client can order items when needed. In addition, the printing company recycles paper waste and promotes reuse of obsolete paper.
- Recycle 100% of printing plates. In addition, The Print Authority uses a chemistry-free plate making system that produces no toxic chemical byproducts.
- Reuse packaging materials. It’s not just promotional products that put a strain on the environment—packing materials also play a role in rampant environmental issues. The Print Authority reuses packaging materials when possible and reduces waste by grouping shipments going to the same location.
- Decrease Redo Rate. The Print Authority always actively works to lower its redo rate. Typically, the printing company’s redo rate is close to or below 0.5% of sales.
- Utilize environmentally friendly digital presses. The Print Authority’s black and white digital presses produce ozone free printing and also have extremely low heat, reducing power usage. Their color digital presses use plant-based biodegradable toner!
- Use recycled paper products. The on-demand printing company uses as standard stocks glossy, dull and uncoated cover papers that all contain post-consumer waste. This means many customers use recycled paper without even knowing!
- Donate obsolete paper. Rather than throw away obsolete paper, the printing company donates reusable paper to schools and preschools.
- Reduce gasoline use. The printing company completes as many operations as possible in-house to avoid unnecessary trips.
- Decrease paper for internal operations. The printing company uses email invoices and statements where possible to avoid unnecessary printing.
- Use eco-friendly inks. Soy and vegetable-based inks are used in the offset printing process to increase paper biodegradability. In addition, these inks tend to be more spreadable which reduces ink waste.
We also recognize that there is always more than can be done to reduce our environmental impact, so we are always on the lookout for new and better ways of improving our green initiatives!
Green Printing Products and Services
The Print Authority has a variety of on-demand printing products and services that utilize the green printing methods mentioned above.
Click the dropdown to view a variety of green products that The Print Authority creates.
- Annual reports
- Banners
- Booklets
- Brochures
- Business cards
- Car magnets
- Cling labels
- Counter cards
- Flyers
- Invitations
- Marketing materials
- Newsletters
- Notecards
- Plastic signs
- Postcards
- Posters
- Programs
- Promotional items
- Presentation boards
- Temporary wall graphics
- Tickets
- Training manuals
- Yard signs
Is there something you need printing that isn’t mentioned on this list? Fill out a contact form or give us a call at (615) 468-2679 to learn more about the green printing service and products we can create for you!
Contact The Print Authority Today!
At The Print Authority, we are committed to improving our processes and helping our clients make choices that reduce environmental impacts. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your company with our custom, sustainable printing methods!
