With the transition to digital media being the norm, these days, one has to wonder if printed promotional campaigns can ever be green?
Marrying tried-and-tested marketing methods with the responsibility of being a greener business can seem like a difficult task, particularly at a time when many companies are feeling the strain financially. One of the oldest tools used by companies to promote their products and services are leaflets and brochures, but in a world where sustainability is becoming a key consideration, does the printed promotion still have its place?
In addition to being cost-effective, it’s possible to ensure environmental issues such as sustainability are still considered as part of a traditional leafleting strategy by purchasing promotional flyers from an eco-friendly printing supplier. If you are considering embarking on a traditional leafleting campaign, or would like to produce some printed promotional literature, it’s best to approach potential printing partners armed with a few questions that should help you snag the best deal for you and the environment.
Many businesses are aware that operating as a green business can help them to attract customers, so in order to ensure you yourselves aren’t guilty of greenwashing and that you don’t fall victim to the attempts of others at doing the same, you should establish a few basics. One point to check is whether the green printing company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council – a not-for-profit organisation that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests. Companies who are certified under the group’s Chain-of-Custody programme use paper that can be tracked right back to certified wood grown in their forests. This means that the paper used to print your leaflets or other promotional materials has been sourced responsibly.
Waste should also be a priority: as well as making sure you don’t order more promotional materials than you need, you should check your green printers’ waste policy.
Flyerzone, an eco friendly printing company, separates waste into seventeen streams for recycling or processing and use vegetable based inks from large drums. Vegetable based inks are less harmful to the environment and pumping from drums rather than using small cartridges minimises the use of packaging. It’s even possible to recycle printing plates – so ask potential printing partners whether they have a recycling policy. In addition to being more environmentally sound, minimising waste makes solid commercial sense as those who use fewer resources are able to keep printing prices low and offer you a good price for their services.
How to Assess the Eco-Friendliness of Your Green Printing Services
Here are a few questions you can ask to assess the eco-friendliness of printing companies:
- Is the paper purchased by the company, from a certified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) supplier?
- Do you have an environmental management system (EMS) in place? Is it certified to the ISO 14001 standard or verified under the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
- What type of inks do you use in your printing process?
- Do you use cartridges or drums as part of the printing process?
- What do you do with your paper waste?
- How does your business dispose of non-paper waste such as solvents?
- Can you provide assistance or advice if I have leftover printed materials that I need to dispose of?
- Do you recycle your printing plates?
- Do you have schemes in place which reward green ideas from employees?
Beyond the use of promotional printing, keeping waste to a minimum is a good lesson to take into your own workplace; as well as limiting your paper waste you can look to reduce energy use through harnessing natural light in your building, or installing solar energy panels to help you generate your own heat.
Use the lessons learnt in your promotional campaigns throughout your business and familiarise yourself with the waste reduction packaging directive, which tries to minimise the use of packaging, promote energy recovery and encourage recycling. Not only could this gain your business recognition as a green business, it could also net you savings both long and short term.
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Another thing to keep in mind is the electricity that it takes to run the printers. Are they buying from green sources? What about gasoline for the trucks they use to move materials/finished copies. Are they (relatively) environmentally friendly?
Good thing about this green printing company, They left an environmental satisfaction to all at who are really important and bringing the great products for such individuals. I hope that most of our brother’s will consider our environment when making decision.
I think they are not friendly… they destroy our environment
Good post ! i like the Idea that ” Not only could this gain your business recognition as a green business, it could also net you savings both long and short term. ”
we can save environment and save money at same time.
I am always on the side of those company or organization that consider the status of our environment in every projects that they made, not as that they creating a solution just for the mankind… Eco-friendly is the attitudes must posses of every business man…
Good thing this is already a “Green Printing Company” which provides a complete set of things that surely help a huge help to all of us…
This is very informative post. We should be aware how to help or contribute to mother earth. Thanks for some list how to make sure that we are using an eco-friendly paper bags.
I am seeing a lot more green printing companies out there today. It seems that some of them you are taking on their word that they are following green practices as there is not one authoritative governing body (that I know of) out there checking on these places. Regardless, I am excited to see that an effort is at least being made to cut down on waste, use more recycled materials, use environment friendly ink and use energy from environment friendly resources. It is also critical that the printed finished product be right the first time. I can’t tell you how many times, I have seen a marketing department re-print an item because they didn’t check in detail what they were printing the first time.
As a side note, this use of environment friendly energy is being seen in many different fields such as web hosting which may be surprising but it was a factor in the place I chose to host with.
Hello !
@Sean
I’m totally agree with you, and i call companies to use green electricity using wind and solar power.
Here in our company we use solar power to run all printers and faxes, and soon we will use for the lighting services.
May the world know the importance of Renewable energy in our life.
Its really great to have a kind of production knowing that this one will provides good thing not just to people rather with our environment…
Eco-friendly printing is the way to go today. This is an age where mankind has to become more aware and responsible for his actions towards the environment. Like most production operations, printing houses also produce harmful wastes such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which when inhaled, greatly increase the risk of asthma attacks. So the need of “eco-friendly printing services” is much more today.
Hello
It’s my first post on this page, I’m from poland and in my country is really dificullt companies who are worry about ecology. It’s changing, many big comapnies are changing this problem but small factory most are non eco. I think paper should be 100% recycled. Private I’m photographer and I try to be as ecological as I can.
Best regards and I wait for some new posts. Sorry for my english:)
I really appreciate the efforts of this article in promoting greener energy and i commend you for it. Its necessary for us to take the steps to reduce on the energy used and conserve it in the various ways no matter how trivial.
http://LongPathTool.com
Love the idea about the Green Printing Company, nice to see some companies take care about the future of our little planet.
At my company we always try to get an exact count on any paper collateral we get from the printer. This way we never have extras that get tossed out!