It’s important to start thinking about sustainability within your business. Creating a green economy is going to protect your business in the long run. But before you go around planting trees in your car parks, switching your energy provider to renewables and making sure everyone recycles, what smaller things can you do to make your business greener?
The answer is eco-friendly promotional materials.
Why Go Eco-Friendly?
With more big brands making the switch and environmental destruction becoming more of a common topic in the news, it makes sense to go eco-friendly. Not just for your business but for the planet too.
The average person throws away 400kg of waste each year. A lot of this is business-related materials such as documents from their job or promotional materials they’ve been given. In the UK, we have a recycling rate of 45% which is good - but could be better.
In today’s market, ‘going green’ can be seen as a status symbol. A lot of customers want to buy from businesses that have proven sustainability credentials which can be actioned in any part of the company.
“Consumers now expect retailers’ sustainability efforts to be deeply and genuinely rooted in the brands’ psyche, rather than it being any short-termist play. And that means retail businesses need to carefully consider both how they can evolve their businesses operationally to be greener, and also how this is effectively communicated to shoppers in a genuine, transparent and engaging manner.”
Bigger things could include sourcing your energy from a renewable energy supplier or you could work from the ground up by making sure the smaller processes are as green as possible.
For example, you can start with promotional materials. These are everywhere and come in a variety of mediums. Flyers, posters, postcards, brochures - these all come under the promotional material umbrella and guess what? They can all be made eco-friendly which is good news for the customer and great news for you.
How Can Promotional Materials Be Eco-Friendly?
We are often led to believe we should only be using recycled paper if we want to be more green. The truth is virgin fibres are needed to maintain the paper cycle. Without new fibres, from new trees, the paper cycle cannot be maintained.
Recycled fibres degrade after several uses and the paper industry needs fresh fibre to keep the renewable cycle going. As long as the fresh fibres are from sustainably managed forests you have the green light on using virgin paper, or recycled paper, the choice is yours.
What can I do to Be More Green?
Collecting paper for recycling, ensures fibres remain available for remanufacturing, this is key to sustainability.
Secondly, if you’re with the right print supplier, you’ll be able to order your promotional materials with sustainability in mind. Think of printing techniques, stock types, and the bespoke actions a provider takes to secure a sustainable product.
Stock Types & Alternative Materials
Paper can come from FSC®-certified sources, which goes against the misleading environmental claims of deforestation and excessive energy consumption. When you see an FSC® logo on the label, you can buy products with the confidence that you’re ensuring the continued health of the planet’s forests.
You may hear print suppliers discuss using Carbon Balanced Paper and offer it as a stock option. This means you can offset CO2 emissions produced in the paper production used in your job. You should know, Carbon Balanced Paper and Carbon Balanced Print are two different things, if you can find a print supplier that offers both that's a big green tick.
LED UV Printing
LED UV uses an innovative drying method called UV curing, which is proving very successful. Instead of heat, ultraviolet light is used to dry the ink. This only takes a split second. The process improves the turnaround time and helps the ink to retain its depth of colour and quality. LED UV uses around 20% less ink than conventional printing presses, as the quick drying time reduces absorption and dispersion of the ink into the stock.
LED UV printing uses much less power than traditional print drying technology, and the instant on/off functionality reduces standby consumption between jobs and reduces overall CO2 emissions.
Creating eco-friendly promotional materials is easier than ever, but there’s a lot to consider before ordering green print. How can you make sure your process is as environmentally friendly as possible?
Discover the Best Eco-Friendly Print Practices With Our Checklist
By using our sustainable print checklist, you’ll identify the best ways of maintaining a low carbon footprint. With environmentalism in the hearts and minds of many consumers, showing your green credentials with eco-friendly promotional materials is a big win. Our checklist will give you the key considerations you can ponder before working with a print supplier.
