Environment

… for environmental action. A look at what makes Fujifilm Speciality Ink Systems a ‘Sustainable Innovation’ award winner.

When it comes to environmental credentials and programmes, the wide-format sector can hardly claim to be at the forefront, despite all the pro-green arguments.

Walter Hale looks at why wide-format print companies should reassess their environmental and sustainability strategies.

“You cannot do business on a dead planet.” That was the stark warning Hunter Lovins, author and president of a non-profit organisation called Natural Capitalism Solutions, gave at a recent United Nations symposium on sustainability.

So what’s Lego and Levi Strauss got to do with me? Quite a lot as it happens when it comes to environmental messaging and direction.

- By Walter Hale.

“I, as a designer, made the problem. I made the mess. If we can think of ways of designing without making the messes, we will be ahead.” This observation by Paul Dillinger, head of global product innovation at Levi Strauss, was one of the high points at the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego this summer.

How Stylographics is turning its own waste into donation drop-boxes for KitAid.

Stylographics has always had a bit of a thing about environmentally friendly products and pushing them into the marketplace. In keeping with that mentality it introduced 100% recycled, recyclable and sustainable Re-board into its portfolio a while back, and now it’s taking its caring ethos a step further - Re-board cut-offs are used for a charitable project called KitAid. 

Fespa encourages printers to adopt sustainable practices with the launch of 11 Planet Friendly mini guides

Fespa has re-launched its Planet Friendly Print Guide in the form of 11 new ‘mini’ guides as part of its wider Planet Friendly Print programme.

The University of Sheffield is purifying the air around a poster it is displaying for a year. What’s more, it says the technology used to do it could be cheaply applied to other printed billboards.

A 20m x 20m printed banner hanging on the side of the University of Sheffield’s Alfred Denny Building is cutting pollution thanks to the use of a new technology that its developer says could be applied to other billboards.

Walter Hale explores the concept that sustainability is no longer about being green, but about the way companies perform and how they help, or harm, the businesses, communities and societies they interact with.

As the textile printing eco story strengthens, are you becoming more convinced it’s an option for your business? 

We all recognise becoming 100% green is something is a long shot – but if we focus on some of the smaller elements such as eco-inks, emission free substrates and reducing waste we can take steps towards that. And that’s where textiles and soft signage can come in. The new generation of dye-sublimation systems are more sustainable than many of their fellow UV or eco solvent printers. By using dye-sub or latex inks on polyester substrates we can produce relatively green products.