 How this Red, White and Blue company is going Green!
Going Green isn’t just about recycling paper and using vegetable based inks. It’s about reducing our carbon footprint – the measure of greenhouse gases produced in the day-to-day operations of business.
PrintPlace.com has established a sustainability system to minimize waste and support environmental responsibility.
PrintPlace.com has substantially lowered its carbon footprint by implementing a “Made in America” program.
- Paper: We use three U.S.-based chlorine-free paper manufacturers with mills in Wisconsin, Virginia and Arkansas.
- Manufacturing: Our pre-press and manufacturing materials are made in South Carolina, Illinois and Florida.
- Shipping: We work with local providers to ensure that all packing materials are made in America.
Our standard inks are now vegetable based.
Vegetable-based inks significantly reduce the amount of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) released into the air during printing.
While vegetable oils are a renewable resource, the pigment suspended in those oils is an often toxic ingredient for which there are few substitutes. Certain colors of ink, even vegetable-based ink, contain heavy-metal pigments like cadmium, barium, and copper, which are associated with various health hazards. Everything we print derives from the same four colors of ink, which do not contain these heavy-metal pigments.
But we don’t stop there.
In addition to paper and inks, our commitment to the environment is reinforced through all aspects of operation:
- Aqueous coatings are water based
- All paper waste is recycled
- Corrugated shipping cartons are 100% recyclable
- Shipping cartons are packed with 100% recyclable material
- All paper waste resulting from our production process are recycled.
- We recycle our metal printing plates, inks and solvents.
- Three-phase lighting provides power savings of up to 50%
- With three shipping points across the country, jobs ship from the facility closest to the shipping destination whenever possible. This reduces the overall carbon footprint by drastically reducing shipping distances and greenhouse gases.
Our new Komori LS540 presses are equipped with sub-micron recycling filters for fountain solutions. These filters remove contamination from the fountain solution thereby:
- keeping the solution clean, fresh and consistent
- resulting in reduced wastewater discharge
- providing more consistent color with less fountain troubleshooting
- increasing productivity and resulting in greater client satisfaction.
Our corporate office gets involved too!
We practice environmental responsibility around the office by:
- Placing recycling containers at every workstation.
- Keeping aluminum can and plastic bottle recycling containers in common areas.
- Turning computers and monitors off at the end of every work day.
- Encouraging paperless meetings. Employees have laptops with internet for meetings and training.
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