Page 41 - Widthwise Magazine

Q47. What is your major environmental focus for 2020 (mark one) Measure/reduce your carbon footprint
47.81%
Widthwise 2020
Reduce/recycle your own in-house waste Consider the environmental impact of your purchasing decisions Reduce your energy consumption Use recycled/recyclable materials Use papers from certified sources (FSC, PEFC etc) ‘Upsell’ end print solutions that are recyclable Provide customers with a print/waste take-back/recycle scheme Improve your in-house energy generation (install solar panels etc) Hire an environmental consultant
16.23%
12.72%
8.77%
8.77%
2.63% 1.75%
0.88% 0.44%
0%
a Chinese plot but a real threat to
the planet and, having reflected on
that, become ashamed of their own contribution to climate change. At the last Image Reports printers’ round table in October 2019, Richard Courtney, director of wide-format business Gardners, said: “We used to view environmental accreditation as a box- ticking exercise. Now it seems intrinsic to us to be greener, to want to save the planet for future generations. We have all become morally responsible.”
British PSPs are not just talking the talk. This new sense of responsibility - though not as sweeping as the shift in the retail industry in the 2000s - has led some companies to switch to electric vehicles and water-based inks and reducing the use of Volatile Organic Compounds in the press room. The increasingly urgent and successful drive to find recyclable and greener alternatives to PVC could be
a game changer for the industry’s carbon footprint.
One potential remedy, adopted by Chatham-based wide-format firm PressOn (see Printers’ Perspectives) is to use a fabric substrate which eliminates the need for plastics. Other solutions include recycling PVC, which has become a lot easier and more advanced over the past two years. The challenge remains
to find a greener substrate that can pack as much visual punch as PVC. In the interim, some wide-format companies have used their print waste to do good: Hull trade printer RMC Digital Print donates its waste to Scrapstore which uses it for various purposes - educational, creative and therapeutic. Hersham wide-format provider Impress Print
has worked with the World Land Trust
to offset its carbon emissions. And Gardners has turned words into action by launching a speciality print coating that
purifies the air.
During lockdown, the ‘virtual meeting’
replaced most physical meetings. That change may be here to stay - if, for no other reason than the uncertain outlook over the world’s health - and, given that global CO2 emissions are estimated to have fallen by
a quarter during lockdown, less business travel would be no bad thing for the planet.
All that said, it does seem that many printers are only beginning to take their moral responsibility seriously. The 2020 Widthwise survey found that the top environmental priority for 47.6%
of respondents was to measure and/
or reduce their carbon footprint. The priority for 16.2% was to reduce/recycle in-house waste while 12.7% said they would consider the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. These are all laudable and necessary but, as the industry seeks to do more with less, is it not time to be bolder?
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