Well, when it comes to environmental considerations in the manufacture and distribution of wide-format inkjet printers, many vendors are still standing on the apron though their engines may be running. Nessan Cleary reports.
We know that for many businesses, particularly retailers, it’s important to be seen to be green and that increasingly that means looking to their whole supply chain and making sure that it reflects their own environmental policies. The knock-on effect is that large-format print providers are going to have to be in a position to demonstrate to their customers that their business fits the bill. And that in turn means taking a long hard look at the suppliers they use and the equipment they buy. In commercial print and in packaging this is already de rigueur but it seems that the large-format sector is lagging behind.
Most large-format machine manufacturers contacted for this article were somewhat evasive on the issue of their environmental strategy and actions relating specifically to digital inkjet wide-format printer build and distribution, saying prospective equipment purchasers still rarely ask about ‘green’ credentials in terms of kit, or of them as manufacturers full stop. However, Jonathan Graham, who is responsible for environmental matters for HP’s Graphic Solutions Business unit, notes: “It doesn’t come up often but, when it does come up it does so in a big way and can be a deal breaker. As companies become more aware of their own footprint and profile then these questions become very urgent.”
Graham says that the environmental issue has been part of HP’s “corporate strategy since the late 50s.” Anyone can download the company’s global sustainability report from its
website, and it is also extending access to its Environmental Contact Centre (which was set up primarily for its own sales force), where HP machine users can get answers to the kind of awkward questions that their own their customers might pose.
HP has put a lot of faith into picking up various certifications, such as the GreenGuard awards from Underwriters Laboratories in the US for both the latex and UV printers, certifying low chemical emissions. Indeed, HP makes numerous claims for the environmental friendliness of its latex printers due to their water-based inks, particularly in comparison with solvent inks. However, Graham concedes that the latex printers do use a lot of energy to cure the inks, saying: “We are looking at next generation inks to be more efficient but they do have more drying challenge than the UV.” He also points out that it’s a balance between the additional energy and the lack of harmful emissions associated with these inks.
However, it’s worth noting that the Mimaki latex printers use less heat for curing, and that other inks, including the dye- sublimation inks used in textile printing, are also water-based.
Graham also makes the point that there is pressure from legislation around the world that is forcing manufacturers to take a more sustainable approach to the way they actually make their products.
The manufacturing process has a lot to do with the carbon footprint of a given printer, and there is some evidence that where manufacturers have built factories recently they have looked for ways to be more environmentally sustainable. HP, for example, last year opened a new ink production facility in Kiryat Gat, Israel, that produces ink for both the Indigo and Scitex printers. It’s the first plant in Israel built to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, and uses solar energy panels to produce power, as well as recycling much of the water used, which is particularly important in a dry climate such as Israel.
Another good example comes from Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems (FSIS), which last year opened a new extension to its ink production plant in Broadstairs in Kent. This factory produces inks for Fujifilm’s digital printers as well as the Sericol screenprint inks. The plant is kept at a constant temperature throughout the year with the heat being recycled from the energy used in the ink mixers in order to cut down on the amount of power needed to run the factory.
Colin Boughton, operations director for FSIS, says that the company looked at solar power but that it wasn’t feasible for the amount of energy the plant needed, though Fujifilm does use solar power in other plants around the world.
However, Fujifilm has worked with its waste contractors to ensure that none of the waste from the plant goes to landfill, with 100% of the waste now being recycled in one form or another. For example, the 200 litre drums that some of the chemicals arrive in are now cleaned and relined and returned for reuse.
Another example is the used non-hazardous raw material sacks, which number over 330,000 and contain materials such as titanium dioxide, that are now bailed and sent for recycling, rather than going into landfill - saving approximately £4,000 per year in the process. The hazardous raw material sacks are incinerated for energy recovery, again saving on the high cost of sending such material to landfill.
Much of this has been driven by changes to the EU Landfill directive, which led to FSIS seconding a full time waste and recycling supervisor. This year FSIS negotiated a contract with two specialist companies that were able to handle the more difficult items, such as waste extraction powder, which is processed for energy recovery, and contaminated glass jars, which turned out to be one of the most difficult items to recycle but which are now crushed and mixed with other materials and used for road surfacing.
However, Fujifilm has less control over the printers that it sells, since those are mostly sourced from other manufacturers. This includes the Onset range, manufactured in Cambridge by Inca Digital. Heather Kendle, director of sales and marketing, says: “Inca considers energy saving design, resource saving and elimination of harmful substances at all stages of printer design, as well as the impact during use.”
She elaborates: “For end users, we develop features that enable key components to move to standby power or complete shutdown whenever feasible, to reduce power consumption. Recent print mode development has focused on reducing ink consumption and energy use during the print cycle through modifications in hardware and software.”
Inca hasn’t looked at carbon footprinting its printers yet but has tried to reduce harmful substances used during manufacturing. Kendle says the company has also looked “at recycling or refurbishing components wherever possible.”
Several vendors have produced wide-reaching environmental strategy documents. Epson, for example, built its environmental policy around its Environmental Vision 2050 strategy, which includes a commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions by 90% across the life cycle of its products and services. It also wants to encourage the reuse and recycling of its products and has committed to actively pursuing biodiversity projects. Part of this is to ensure that products last longer and to encourage customers to return them to Epson for recycling when they reach the end of their life cycle, though this last does point does not appear to apply to large-format printers.
Part of Epson's commitment is to look at ways to reduce CO2 emissions whilst making products. This includes cutting down on energy use in factories. Epson has adopted a ‘compact’ manufacturing approach - using fewer materials to make the printers. Duncan Ferguson, director of Epson’s professional graphics division, explains: “A lot of what we did in terms of the design of the F-series products was on how to minimise what we needed to build the product. As a result, it’s significantly lighter than the GS-series that preceded it.” This in turn also makes it easier and greener to distribute in bulk.
Epson tries to reduce the power consumption of its printers, which of course also helps users reduce their power bills. The company also recycles some parts, though put on the spot it couldn’t be more specific as to what parts those are.
Ferguson points out that it’s necessary to design recycling into the product from the start: “If you use a material that isn’t common then it’s difficult to recycle because people don't have the facilities and don't want to mix it with other plastics.”
There is of course an enormous economic benefit in cutting down on the environmental footprint of wide-format printers and vendors are starting to realise that using fewer materials in manufacturing also saves them money. But Ferguson stresses that Epson has taken the approach it has because it’s the right thing to do for the environment, pointing out that the company has adopted new manufacturing methods and raw materials to reduce energy usage even when this has cost more.
He adds: “We did build a complete new factory to build the SureColor products to take that next step in terms of efficiency and manufacturing.”
Epson has also moved production of its dye-sublimation inks to its Telford plant to supply the European market, its biggest sales region for these inks. Ferguson adds: “It reduces the stock that needs to be held, which is good if you can reduce the level of temperature control, and the energy that uses.”
Epson does take back ink cartridges and recycles the casings which helps to cut down on the amount of plastic used. And within the industry there is a general move towards recycling cartridges or even using refillable bags for inks rather than cartridges. Mimaki, for example, now ships the inks for its larger volume printers in foil sacks contained within recycled cardboard boxes.
In addition, Mimaki’s UK distributor, Hybrid, has been running its own cartridge collection scheme for the solvent printers for some years now. This free scheme saves customers the cost of having to deal with the waste cartridges and Hybrid even gives a free ink cartridge for every 45 cartridges collected. The cartridges are made of a fire retardant plastic that makes them hard to recycle so they are used to make building materials.
So, where does all this leave us? There is clearly increasing pressure in the market to be able to demonstrate environmentally-friendly supply chains. In commercial offset print, where the use of FSC or PEFC papers shows a clear chain of custody for the substrates, and with some offset press manufacturers also now able to show the carbon footprint for their presses there’s plenty of environmental actions to highlight. But things have been slower to develop in the wide- format sector and it still seems that few equipment manufacturers are giving really serious and targeted consideration to carbon footprinting or environmental life cycle analysis of digital inkjet equipment.
Then again, ISO has only just published its own carbon footprinting standard, ISO 16759, which describes the framework for measuring the carbon footprint of print media, and which is likely to galvanise more action in this area. It seems fairly obvious that if customers can have this sort of information for their direct mail campaigns then they will also demand it for their POP displays as well.
Of course, the big issue with large-format is that many substrates are not particularly green and those that are tend to be expensive. We know the argument only too well; that print customers like the idea of sustainable displays until they see the cost. But there’s no doubt that greening the supply chain is a necessity, so things are going to have to happen.
It’s worth noting the irony that many vendors have spent a great deal of energy in producing long and often very laborious documents detailing how sustainable they are. Yet, few of these companies are able to talk in detail about their environmental actions and approach when it comes to specifics in relation to wide-format, something of a problem if you are in the vanguard of printers wanting the detail, whether it’s in answer to economic questions (after all, it’s far cheaper to run printers that consume less power and less ink, and if the vendors can make their factories and distribution more efficient, and the printers longer lasting, than the costs should fall even further) or to satisfy the growing tranche of print buyers wanting their suppliers to be able to qualify their environmental messaging.