Many people have discovered the benefits of environmentally friendly printing. Starting with the design process, graphic artists can design the green-ness into the piece that is going to get printed. We call this process Clean Design. We believe that clean design starts with knowing what types of papers, processes, decoration techniques, coatings and bindery operations add up to making printing as eco-friendly as possible.

Papers
This is the easiest decision to make, use recycled paper, right? Well, the most responsible papers are not as obvious a choice as you may think. There are many things to consider.

• Recycled Content
• Post Consumer Waste (PCW) percentage
• FSC Certified (Paper that has virgin pulp that is trackable back to the originating forest)
• Elemental Chlorine-free
• Process Chlorine-free
• Acid-free
• Finishes or Coatings (Online and Offline)
  
• Brightness
• Thickness
• Mailing Techniques and processes*

Inks
We use Soy based waterless inks, which are the best combination of technology eliminating the use of water in the printing process, but the base product of our inks is soy. You can learn much more here.

• Waterless Inks eliminate water and chemicals that are normally necessary in the printing process to impress the image on a plate to the paper itself.
• Soy or Vegatable Inks eliminate the use of petroleum in the process of making ink, this also helps in the recycling of the printed products we produce. Soy and other Vegetable inks are easily separated in the recycling process from the paper on which they are printed. This has zero effect on print quality or the length of time that the printed impression will last in circulation.

Platemaking
Our Computer to Plate (CTP) system is manufactured by the same company that makes our offset printing press.
However, interestingly enough, our Presstek™ DI (Direct Imaging) press uses its own internal (online) platemaking system that is imaged thermally diretly from a computer. We do use our offline CTP system to make plates for our Heidelberg® offset printing equipment to make that process chemistry free and as environmentally friendly as possible.

The following statement was released by Presstek regarding their offline CTP system that we use on our Heidelberg equipment:

Not only do our chemistry-free plates eliminate a significant source of toxic emissions associated with conventional offset printing, our platemaking process does away with the need for film and its associated environmental impact.

• Our plates do not use any chemicals in their production
• We recycle all of our plates back to the manufacturer
• Our Presstek press uses only the area of the plate that you need and allows you to use more of the plate when imprinting a small area at at ime, for example, if you print a letterhead that only has a header, we still have a considerable amount of area to use on that plate.

You can learn more here.

Waterless Printing Presses / Chemistry-free Direct Imaging (DI)
The advantages start with the inks and extend throughout the entire waterless printing process. DI presses eliminate the need for: To read in much more detail about Waterless Printing, please click here.

• Chemical processing
• Production steps associated with film-based platemaking
• Separate imaging of plates using an offline CTP system Presstek DI presses achieve this efficiency

by automatically imaging the printing plates and printing the job directly on press.
The digital file is sent to the DI press where all four plates are simultaneously imaged
in precise register. Plates are imaged via thermal process; the heat from the lasers removes the top layers of the plate aterial, exposing the ink receptive layer. The laser and digital plate comprise an optimized system that eliminates the use
of chemistry in the platemaking process. 50 sheets to 25 sheets) after the DI was installed. From an ecological perspective,
this waste saving gains importance when you consider that one tree is equivalent to only two hundred thirty-six 11″ x 17″
brochures printed on 100 lb. cover stock. Paper waste reduction is achieved through the DI presses’ control over major variables in the printing process, such as ink/water by up to 90 percent.

Bindery

• In our bindery operation, we recycle all waste from trimming and die-cutting
• We use biodegradable shrinkwrap
• We use recycled cardboard to make our cartons
• We pack cartons as efficiently as possible while ensuring the integrity of your project without damage

*This is the easiest decision to make, use recycled paper, right? Well, the most responsible papers are not as obvious a choice as you may think. There are many things to consider.*Have you ever thought about the process involved in simply making a Postage Stamp…This simple choice avoids using a postage stamp that has adhesives, paper waste, tons of energy and non-eco-friendly printing done by the USPS (US Postal Service) in the printing and manufacturing of postage stamps.

We suggest using an indicia, which is that printed version of a stamp, that is simply printed in black ink with a black box around the details of who is mailing a piece and the permit number assigned by the post office.