Eco Friendly Printing Companies: Emerging Trends

Being seen as eco friendly is now almost essential to a company's image. Using green technology, reducing carbon footprint, encouraging recycling and using recycled materials, renewable energy sources and waste management have become key to an organization's CSR image.

Using green printed stationery and business merchandise is one area where many corporations can use green technology. One of the biggest trends in eco-friendly printing that's being seen in the marketplace today is that of paper use.

Paper: More and more traditional printing companies are reporting that clients request the use of FSC paper, recycled or recyclable materials, and preferring to use sustainable social forestry products rather than the old wasteful methods. Other alte
atives are leaf paper or living tree paper, which does not require felling. In fact many printing companies even advice clients to go paperless as much as they can, by digitally storing documents, files and other important papers. Double-sided printing can save costs by as much as 30%.

Inks: Using vegetable, organic or soy-based inks is essential for an eco-friendly printing company. Traditional inks are petroleum based and lead to enormous amounts of toxic waste being released into the environment. Similarly, adhesives and gums to finish the paper and give textured, glossy finishes should be green too, otherwise they will render the paper un-recyclable.

Printing process: New waterless printing technologies are emerging which conserve precious water resources and also give efficient, clean and simple printing processes. It's up to a company or business to check with their printers whether they're using such new technology, otherwise, going green would be futile if it simply means using recycled paper and green inks.

Renewable energy: An eco-friendly printing company also uses appropriate renewable energy resources like solar, wind or wave energy wherever possible. For a truly green philosophy to be consistent, clients must also check whether all the components have been produced using such renewable resources. For instance, whether the paper and ink have also been produced with the green tag in mind.

Using the services of a green printing company was seen some time ago as being an expensive fad, but today as more and more clients and customers of big corporations are voicing their conce
over eco-friendly practices, the green lobby is finally coming into its own. “Green” has now emerged as a prestigious tag to have on a company's business stationery, merchandise and events sponsored by it.