There’s a lot of chatter in the industry these days about green printing. One of the challenges is finding a discount printing service that “walks the walk” when it comes to green printing. Just about every online printing company talks about green printing on their website. Unfortunately, many of them are “green washing” by giving the appearance of being environmentally friendly, without really doing the work that is required to be truly green.
- Look for an online printing company that is FSC-certified. FSC CoC certification is a comprehensive process whereby a printing company must document and certify the movement of FSC-certified materials through the manufacturing operation. If in doubt, look for that company’s CoC certification number on their website. If you can’t find one, chances are good they are not FSC-certified. Click here for more information on FSC CoC Certification.
- Look for a printer that offers a wide variety of recycled paper. Conquest Graphics offers recycled papers with 10% to 100% post consumer waste content for all of our house stocks, and all of our house stocks are also FSC certified papers.
- Look for a printing company that employs Green Manufacturing practices in its operation. We have undertaken many different efforts to increase efficiency and reduce waste in our day-to-day operations, and we have been doing them for years. We recycle 100% of our scrap paper, we recycle our aluminum printing plates, and we employ energy-saving measures in our facility. For detail on what we do to be more green, please visit our Green Printing page for more information.
Look for a printer that is efficient. Efficiency is one of the biggest ways you can help the environment. For example, Conquest Graphics offers printing and mailing under the same roof. This saves time, and less energy is expended transporting materials from our facility to a mail house. Our electronic proofs reduce mistakes and the resulting waste that occurs when a project has to be re-printed. Finally, we have implemented a custom-developed internal workflow and management system that expedites the flow of projects through our operation.
At Conquest Graphics, we are leading the way in environmental responsibility, not because we have to, but because we want to! Do you have any comments or stories about green printing? Please feel free to share…