Printing at a glance:

• The greener printing challenge
• Choose the right printing process for the job
• Materials, inks, and equipment
• Building a relationship with your printer
• Re-nourish recommendations for greener printing
• Additional ways to green the printing process

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The greener printing challenge

Printers are a vital piece of the design puzzle; they take the designer's vision from raw materials to reality. But conventional printing may have a bigger impact than any of us bargained for:

• Toxic chemicals: Cleaning solvents, inks, and other materials must be handled by workers and disposed of safely. Heavy metals, which are harmful to the environment and human health in higher doses, are also a common byproduct.
• Air pollution: The printing process frequently results in the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are extremely harmful to human and environmental health, and CO2 emissions, which contribute to climate change.
• Paper waste: Inefficient use of presses can result in significant paper waste, as can poor inventory and purchasing practices.
• Energy and water use: Printing is an energy-intensive process, often relying on nonrenewable fossil fuels. It also requires a lot of water (a crucial natural resource), and requires proper disposal of contaminated water after the cleaning process.

When designers and printers work together to carefully plan a project, however, these challenges become much easier to overcome. The following sections explore the most influential ways to make a difference.

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Choose the right printing process for the job

Typical considerations when choosing the most appropriate printing process include the size of your print run (for energy and materials efficiency), parent sheet size (for materials efficiency), and equipment requirements (for chemicals use, and energy and materials efficiency).

• Digital: Requires no chemical plate-making or makeready waste. Efficient for runs of less than 1,000 pieces.
• Lithography: Uses metal plates to print an image on paper, which may require chemicals to produce. Requires solvents for cleaning. Generally efficient for runs of 1,000-50,000 pieces.
• Waterless: A type of offset lithography that dramatically reduces VOC output, water use, the need for toxic cleaning solvents, and energy use.
• Flexography: Potential for substantial environmental impact due to chemical plates, cleaning solvents and VOC emissions. Look for closed pollution control systems or UV systems to help reduce impact. Often used for packaging, flexography is generally only efficient on very large runs of more than 50,000.
• Screen printing and letterpress: May require the use of chemical plate and screen preparations, and potentially toxic cleaning solvents. Can result in paper waste due to increased makereadies and manual nature of the process.

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Materials, inks, and equipment:

Ask your printer for information about how resources are managed (including toxic solvents), from procurement to disposal. These might include:

• Cleaning solvents: Are nontoxic solvents used? If not, how are they disposed of?
• Plate-making materials: What chemicals and metals are used, and how are they disposed of?
• Presses and other equipment: Do they meet government energy efficiency standards? Are there energy efficiency policies in place?

See our sections on greener paper and greener inks for more details about these materials.

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Building a relationship with your printer

It pays to establish relationships with printers who share your environmental values and are willing to put those values into everyday practice. To get a sense of your printer's operational policies, do the following:

• Check their website for candid information about policies, procedures, and equipment.
• Ask questions before getting a quote. Don't be shy; many printers respect designers who care enough about the technical process to ask questions.
• Be open to learning about how they do business, and why they make the decisions they do.
• Keep track of what you're told to make the decision-making process easier in the future.
• Be ready to supply information to printers who aren't able to give you the details you need.

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Re-nourish recommendations for greener printing

When selecting your printer, look for the following:

• Are they local? Aim for a printer within 100 miles of you (or better still, within 100 miles of where the final printed piece will be distributed).
• Are they FSC Certified? FSC certification ensures that the paper used comes from sustainably-managed forests
• Are they certified by a legitimate third-party environmental group? While it doesn't provide a guarantee, legitimate certification can ensure your printer takes these issues seriously
• Are they powered by a renewable energy source?
• If not directly powered by renewable energy, do they offset their energy use by purchasing renewable energy credits from a legitimate provider? (Like Green-e)
• Do they have a formal environmental policy in operation? What is it?
• Do they have a formal energy reduction policy in operation? What is it?
• Do they have a formal waste reduction/recycling policy in operation? What is it?
• Do they provide a formal benefits program and regular safety training for their employees? A printer should respect their staff as much as they respect the environment.
• Are they willing to discuss the above issues with you? Environmentally-aware printers should be open to educating you about their processes, as well as willing to learn themselves.

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Additional ways to green the printing process

• Use our Project Calculator to minimize paper waste during the printing process.
• Consider using digital or waterless printing to reduce overall VOC emissions.
• FTP your files instead of providing hardcopy materials.
• Proof on screen as much as possible to reduce paper waste.
• Use makereadies, overruns, reclaimed materials, or other scrap paper as the base stock.

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