It is a very interesting article! The company LavishConnect is the side of their creative services agency that specialises in producing lovely work for charity and non-profit organisations.
They have been working in the creative industry for too many years to mention; since 2002.
In their experience, when clients choose to work with an agency they make their decisions on three things: the quality of the work, the attitude of the people and the value for money.
I am pretty sure that Kathy would love the sound of that!...so do I. I am so glad that we do start understand the need for more greener design! And it is up to us designers to change peoples thinking. We are the creative people who deliver the end result - it is up to us to make sure that the clients and our environment profit!
from:
http://lavishconnect.co.uk/environmental/
Sustainable printing
As more and more consumers place green issues higher up their agenda, they will be expecting charities to live up to sustainable values and will look to donate money to charities that are environmentally friendly, over ones that are not.
The options available when choosing sustainable printing methods can appear overwhelming. A whole industry seems to have grown up around the terminology alone – FSC, ISO 14001, Recycling, vegetable inks, PEFC, carbon neutral. So what do they all mean and how do you know when they are relevant to your not-for-profit organisation?
The key points:
• The paper and print industry is the 4th largest industry in the UK and has a huge impact on the environment.
• Although it is never possible to be totally sustainable, whatever your marketing channel, there is a lot you can do. There are plenty of options when choosing which paper, inks or printers to use – and the important thing is to consider these factors at the design stage.
Paper
The paper-making industry has a direct impact on the environment as it is energy intensive, uses vast quantities of water and generates large amounts of waste. Of course, different papers are produced in different ways, so not all paper has the same environmental impact. Aside from using recycled paper, which uses less energy, isn’t nearly as expensive as it used to be, creates fewer emissions and less waste than virgin paper, look out for the following labels:
Post-Consumer waste – Choose the highest percentage possible, although any percentage of either post- or pre-consumer waste is better than none.
Off white or natural white paper – Unbleached recycled paper undergoes fewer chemical processes than other recycled or virgin fibre, so uses less energy.
Stick to FSC certified materials if you’re buying virgin (manufactured from new pulp or cotton) paper. Although not 100% accurate, this is generally agreed to be the best certification scheme available. Unlike other schemes, the emphasis is on tracking fibre all the way from the forest to the end use, so the user can be certain of the fibre’s origins. It is wise to treat anything else that claims to be from sustainable forestry with caution.
Ink
Although it might not seem obvious, it is important to think about your print options at the design stage. For example, by reducing areas of ink coverage in your design (eg. solid colours and dark full bleed photographs) you will use less ink. This will also make your product easier to recycle.
Also, brief your designers to avoid using fluorescent colours which require petroleum-based inks. Until recently metalics have only been available as petroleum-based inks but a vegetable oil version has just come onto the market so ask your printer if they’re using these yet.
Other important ink considerations:
Heavy metals such as barium, copper and zinc are contained in certain pigments and can result in environmental and worker health hazards. As mentioned above, metallic and fluorescent inks are the most toxic and do not decompose as easily as other inks. The heavy metal component causes problems by leaching into groundwater.
Few modern sheet-fed inks contain non-renewable mineral (petroleum) oils but heatset web inks still contain 30-35% mineral oil – think about whether the inks you use are made from non-renewable sources.
Soya – These days, instead of containing mineral (petroleum) oil, inks typically contain three parts linseed to one part soya. By using these vegetable oil based inks you’re reducing environmental hazards and avoiding using a non-renewable resource.
Printers
Large amounts of energy are used in the manufacturing of the machines themselves and they collectively use a significant amount of energy during all stages. However, there are more energy efficient printers coming onto the market all the time..
When getting work printed externally, you should aim to use printers which are ISO14001 certified or have the Greenmark standard which means that they have focused on reducing their carbon emissions as well as offsetting them.
It’s really important to ask these basic production questions…
Can you use lighter paper for your job? Avoid specifying heavier paper than is necessary. It may seem obvious, but 200gsm paper uses twice as much wood fibre as 100gsm paper.
Discuss the paper size availability with your printer, as well as the press size before designing your product. Many materials are available in a limited range of sizes and so simply shaving off a few millimetres may dramatically reduce waste. If you have a sufficient run length it is worth getting ex-mill stock which is more cost effective, is delivered direct to the printer and can be made to a bespoke size reducing any possible wastage.
Top tip- Keep in that the most cost-effective formats are A sizes, as all materials and printing presses are based around these. Try not choose a paper/ material which the project size does not fit well.
Window envelopes cannot currently be recycled in the UK so unless the windows have been cut/torn out, the envelopes will be removed from the waste paper when it is sorted. Can your charity use all-paper envelopes instead? Also, think about finishes – for instance, as a general rule anything that is matt laminated cannot be recycled after use.
How many copies do you actually need? Don’t print more copies than you require just because it’s not going to cost much more or because your printer is running a ‘special offer’.
It might seem obvious but make sure that the job has been proofed extremely carefully. This will avert a re-print or a job being pulled off the press halfway through.
To prevent emergency transport of materials, book the job in with your printer, and try to get quantities and paper agreed well in advance, especially if buying special order recycled paper.
Consider the number of processes on a project and how and where they are carried out. For instance if a job had specialist binding, foil blocking, u/v varnishing etc it is possible that a number of specialist suppliers in different locations would have to be used. This would require transportation to each plant increasing the carbon footprint of the job.
Evaluate and confirm delivery details early in the project cycle to allow panic free and efficient distribution. And where you can, buy locally."
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