Environment
Green Printing News
| Wednesday, 01 October 2008 10:10 |
Green Practice For Small Digital Wide Format Print ShopsYou’re a small wide format digital producer that wants to become more environmentally friendly, so what can you do for yourself and for your customers?Add continuing legislation and a general shift in collective cultural consciousness, and it’s not hard to see why being green is becoming a fundamental pre-requisite of running a successful digital wide-format business. It is probably fair to say that for the larger digital printers, moving into a greener zone is easier than say for a smaller sign shop. But there are things you can do as a smaller printer that you can implement straight away that can make a difference –– here are a few pointers. Check your carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is the impact you and your commercial business activities have on the environment in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc. The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent. Visit the business services section of www.carbonfootprint.com to calculate your footprint. You will also gain advice of how to reduce and offset your carbon emissions. The Kit You work with machines day in day out, so its good to know what manufacturers/suppliers are doing at UK grass roots level to support you in your environmental efforts. This year has been a great leap forward for Hybrid, exclusive UK distributor of Mimaki cutters and printers with the launch of its “Let’s DO MORE!” programme which is the only customer-incentive linked recycling scheme in the wide-format industry, leastaways for now. Mimaki customers simply register on the dedicated website for free and Hybrid arranges the collection of cartridges. Participating customers gain credits for the cartridges returned, which can be used against future ink purchases. Pretty neat eh? Hybrid’s environmental waste management partners dispose of any residual ink, then recycle the five component parts of each cartridge - be they metal, plastic or rubber. All Mimaki users need to do is to register at www.letsdomore.co.uk to get on the programme. Duncan Jefferies at Hybrid Services says, “With our ink cartridge recycling scheme, it's Hybrid's aim to take 40 tonnes of cartridges out of landfill this year, and we're on track to do that as Let's Do MORE! has been very enthusiastically taken up by our customers – after all; they were asking us for something along those lines in the first place! “We were only to happy to put the scheme in place (Hybrid work in partnership with a recycling firm to handle the logistics of the programme) and adding the incentive side of it has only made it even more popular.” Another collection/recycling scheme is soon to hit the streets from Roland DG UK. According to Matthew Drake, Print Production Manager, while there isn’t a recycling scheme for cartridges and ink-bottles in place currently, Roland is in talks with several companies, and is looking to have a recycle/collection scheme in place by the end of the year. The company’s ink bottles and cartridges are made of recyclable materials, and aware of the burgeoning interest in greener materials, Roland’s latest range of RS printers, come complete with specially written profiles for recyclable media. At the time of writing, Epson announced the extension of its European cartridge recycling scheme to include wide-format printers and the United Kingdom which is good news. The Epson collect and recycle initative initiative has been running in Europe since February 2006 and has now become part of the company's Environmental Vision 2050 sustainability programme. It operates a free box collection service across Europe and South Africa for empty cartridges from most of its business and professional printer range. Customers from larger companies who tend to use cartridges relatively quickly can, starting in mid September, register online (www.epson-europe.com/environment/collectandrecycle) to request a collection box. This is delivered within five working days, and when full, the customer requests a pick-up and a replacement collection box if required. One hundred percent of the cartridges collected through the scheme are recycled: their plastics components are re-used in manufacturing and construction, while metal parts are smelted and re-used in other industrial applications. Epson's new Stylus Pro GS6000, a 64in large format printer with an eight-colour ink set, unveiled at the FESPA Sign and Display exhibition in Geneva in April, is the company's first LFP to come supplied with a recycling box for its spent ink cartridges. Customers using other Epson LFP models will also be able to order recycling boxes. There are doubtless other examples, but the point is manufacturers and suppliers know the current currency of the environment, and when customers are looking to purchase machines, questions that come under the banner of ‘corporate responsibility’ now form part of the would-be buyer’s decision-making process. Green materials The equation of quality, longevity and eco-friendly materials is not an easy one. However, with growing demand for more environmental materials from customers, this is a huge growth area. Check out big suppliers like Robert Horne that has introduced a green box scheme with examples of its eco-friendly display materials, and Europoint Display with its Envirobox, which also educates about eco-friendly substates. The Envirobox also comes with a handy pc-based calculator that assesses the overall impact of substrates through their lifecycle. Across all applications there is a growing number of eco-friendly materials – pvc-free films, eco textiles for fine art canvas, flags and banners, biodegradeable foamboards and more recycled paper stocks. The portfolio of green materials continues to grow, and the more you use them, the cheaper they will become. Keep abreast of new developments, if you’re not aware of what’s out there, how can you pass information to customers? Stock savvy It’s amazing how much you can waste through inefficient stock control and incorrect handling. Are you wasting more than you ought to? Is stock, especially papers and boards being handled and stored correctly? Is old stock being used before new? Setting key performance indicators (kpis) for managing substrate loss can also help your company define and measure progress towards its goals. Also keep an eye on heat controls, as poor maintenance can lead to wasted energy. Did you know that most papers can be stored at 12°c, saving energy costs on heated store-rooms? The office As well as offering customers eco-friendly alternatives for their display work, what about your own office and administration environment? Use recycled paper wherever possible and turn machines off when you’re not using them. Recycle cds by passing them on to specialists, who can reprocess and sell on the clean plastic for re-use. Where possible, it’s best to use solvent-free cleaning products and inks. Avoid soaking rags in solvents and use sparingly, using pre-treated solvent wipes where you can. Packaging Where you receive excessively packaged products, contact the supplier to discuss your concerns, and think about using returnable packaging yourself. Production efficiency Proper job planning will make your life more efficient. Nesting, job queues, mis systems to help you save time, money and help you to optimise resources. Waste not Review the policy on overs. How much waste is planned into a job? How satisfactory is your waste management and removal? What is your policy on good overs? Are they scrapped, stocked or given away? While you may not be able to re-use waste in your business, it may be useful to others. Make use of a waste exchange scheme to advertise your waste and make it available for use by others, either for sale or free collection. Green credentials These are becoming essential for any business, as many customers now have to, or want to use suppliers that fulfil certain environmental criteria. Now there are accreditations to be had that are suited for the smaller company. The green mark is an environmental certification that enables businesses to improve their environmental performance and gain recognition for doing so. For more information visit www.green-mark.co.uk or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it BPIF environmental assessment scheme is for smaller to medium-sized companies. Check it out at www.britishprint.com to see how you can benefit. Fsc If a printer holds the fsc chain of custody and the paper being used in a project is fsc certified, the end product can be labelled as fsc certified. For more information about this accreditation visit www.fsc.org. Additional resources: 1. www.envirowise.gov.uk/digital-print download a free electronic copy of the excellent digital printing good practice guide – a comprehensive guide to resource efficiency – available free from the envirowise website. 2. www.lovelyasatree.co.uk 3. www.carbontrust.co.uk Our thanks to envirowise for help in compiling this feature. 
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