As our name suggests, we emphasise solutions that take into account our customer's environmental objectives as well as their marketing and budget objectives. Our environmental management system is certified to ISO 14001 standards. For those of you not familiar with ISO 14001, it is the environmental equivalent of the Quality Endorsed ISO 9001 standards. In real terms it means our business has been independently audited to ensure a system is in place to provide our customers with environmentally sound services and products.
Wherever possible, we will suggest sustainable design ideas such as utilising more white space, creating the product to fit the sheet size which will minimise paper wastage and considering recycled, carbon neutral, Australian made or sustainable paper stocks.
We are finding more and more organisations are recognising the importance of a triple bottom line approach to doing business but are often unsure how to go about it. Most people think only of recycled paper as a way of 'doing their bit for the environment'. However, there are many other environmental issues we consider when providing our customers with environmentally sound design and print solutions.
We design with paper sizes in mind, minimise ink coverage where possible, offer colour digital printing for short-run projects, have a state-of-the art CTP prepress unit, use vegetable oil based inks on our alcohol-free printing presses, use water based cleaning agents, waste water dilution tanks, and minimise energy and waste products.
Until there is an international standard definition for the term “Carbon Neutral” we have been reluctant to make any claims in this area. However, below is a list of initiatives we have undertaken to minimize our carbon footprint and in many quarters this would be seen as being “Carbon Neutral”:
- All our vehicles emissions are offset through the GreenFleet program
- Our VOC’s are virtually zero given our use of vegetable oil based inks and running the presses alcohol free
Where possible, we have chosen alternatives to eliminate our carbon output and only as a last resort utilise offset programs – such as tree planting – to offset carbon emissions.