“We believe it’s our corporate social responsibility to increase sustainable solutions within the print industry.” So says Leicestershire-based Data Image, so I talked with founder and CEO Rob Farfort to find out what it’s doing to green-up print - and to ask whether its efforts are being rewarded?
I can’t think of a large-format PSP that doesn’t claim to be making efforts to become more eco-friendly, but back in the summer of 2021 you took the more unusual step of taking on a ‘sustainable researcher’ as part of the Department for Work and Pensions’ Kickstart scheme. What findings have come out of that so far, and how is the company responding?
Data Image was founded back in 1993 and in those days sustainability was hardly mentioned - if anything, it wasn’t even on the radar within the wide-format print sector or the areas which we operate in which are predominantly, POS, exhibitions and events.
I think becoming more eco-friendly has always been at the core of Data Image. We’ve tried to influence the market in various ways using very different materials, and now it has become the buzz word to be sustainable. It wasn’t brands’ focus historically and now it is.
We had an opportunity due to the Kickstarter programme to test the water in having someone dedicated to looking at the greener journey, whether that was for our customers, working with our suppliers and of course internally. We wanted to understand in greater detail what was meant by ‘green’.
There is a lot of greenwashing going within our industry and its important for Data Image to be accurate at all times in the information we are sharing. We hear lots from other companies, for example saying “we use eco-friendly inks” but, if we scratch a little deeper what does that really mean? When we make a claim here at Data Image we have to believe in that claim - it’s not just putting something out there. If we have purchased a material that says its sustainable, we need to be assured as to why that material is sustainable because they may not be as sustainable as you think.
The first project we gave to our sustainability researcher was to understand the many buzz words being used, like ‘sustainability’, ‘recyclability’, ‘green’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘reusable’. I had questions and wanted to know what those words really meant, not only for me but for our customers. So, the starting point was to define and simplify the words being used, in order to create an internal white paper that made it much simpler as a business to understand and allow us to all be on the same page.
Exhibitions is one of your main markets and you have been producing, and promoting, 100% recyclable stands for some time now. Is that beginning to pay dividends?
Exhibitions have always been part of the Data Image offering, but historically very much supplying the graphical part to an existing contractor who would be fabricating a stand made of MDF or wood. When on site, whether that be my team or myself, we’d see that at the end of the exhibition very little of these stands gets re-used or recycled, so we started a journey using cardboard based materials to build stands.
We didn’t want to go out there too quickly, so we took small baby steps to build the concept we were creating to gain some momentum. Now it is becoming much bigger, with opportunities that keep growing day by day and week by week year by year to the point it will now become a core driver to us over the next 12 months.
We have some exciting things we will be showing and sharing over the next 6-12 months.
So yes, is it paying dividends 100% and the industry is ready to be disrupted.
How much do you have to actively promote ‘greener’ printed solutions to your clients - and is it proving an economically viable strategy?
This goes back to “how do you actively promote greener printed solutions?”.
Historically it was a real hard slog of a sell, difficult and it wasn’t a customer’s priority whether they were linked directly or indirectly to a brand. The first question typically asked was often “is it going to cost us more?” Now, cost is nowhere near the top of the priorities. We are now told that the priority is to be seen to be using greener materials, and the brands are asking for this. This is further driven by companies wanting to measure their carbon footprint, with the goal of business becoming net zero.
Previously we had been trying to sell it to customers, now customers are starting to ask for this greener alternative. Customers are seeing our marketing activities and engaging with us, so it has gone full circle, this is great as we now have knowledge and expertise to be able to advise.
We have the historical data from previous successful projects we have already completed and we’re becoming a trusted advisor to new clients - they feel reassured handing those projects over to us knowing that we are going to give them a viable greener, economically produced stand for them moving forward.
Do you have any kind of take-back programme for printed exhibition stands?
Yes, we have a take-back programme and are able to recycle with a full audit trail that allows us to share the carbon footprint.
Interestingly, one of the main things our clients have realised from working with these materials is that they are able to reuse them two, three, four times before they may be fed-up with the design and want something different.
Allowing clients to be able to both reuse and repurpose - whether this is by extending them or altering them - has become incredibly important.
Great design is not just about the looks, it’s about a future lifespan. As an example, we have an exhibition stand for a client that has been built in a modular way thus they are planning to re-use sections of the stand which will be sent out to their clients to enable it to be used as retail display units in store. Therefore, the original stand has potentially a much longer life.
Traditionally the MDF stands that were used were filled, sanded and painted and would 90% probably have gone in the bin. So, these new stands are now reused, repurposed and then at the end maybe recycled increasing their use and life span before being fully recycled with a certificate of authenticity which is fantastic.
Where else do you see scope to increase sustainable solutions within wide-format inkjet produced print - and do you think all of those are/can be profitable to PSPs?
I think there are many areas to increase the scope of sustainable solutions that are currently using non-recyclable products, and these can all be profitable. It’s all down to the knowledge and mindset of supplier/client advising that transitional process and journey from using traditional materials to these new greener sustainable materials. It is always interesting when we sit down with clients and they are sometimes still not aware these sustainable materials are available and typically there is no price differentiation between the old and the new which is great, giving further opportunity.
Where do you think the biggest sticking points are in terms of this sector becoming more environmentally proactive?
The biggest sticking point is that most traditional exhibition stand builders probably don’t have the in-house capabilities at present to transition to a different manufacturing process in using these more modern sustainable materials. Additionally, having a mindset change to do that along with having the investment available are issues. I think the sticking point is multifaceted really.
However, this does create a fantastic opportunity for a company like Data Image that has a diverse range of equipment to be able to facilitate moving into these markets and disrupting the modular sustainable market in general. For us, it creates opportunity, but for the legacy manufacturers it’s their biggest sticking point unless they invest and change.
Where next for Data Image on its CSR journey overall?
Data Image is all about creativity and innovation - we don’t stand still, we always look for better ways to achieve results and success. Data Image wants to shape the print, display and exhibition landscape moving forward and encourage clients to embrace environmental and sustainable futures.