A FEW OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
In addition to paper, inks and design, there are some other important things to consider when greening your printing:
Mailing: Doing your printing and mailing all in one place saves you the cost and environmental impact of shipping your printed materials to a fulfillment center for mailing. In addition, your mailed material is delivered directly to your clients quicker, which allows for more lead times in production. At Greenerprinter, we can print and mail your materials (and you can create a mailing list, too!).
Equipment: Consider the equipment that your printer uses. Newer machinery is more energy efficient and less wasteful. In printing, this applies to plate-making equipment, presses, and bindery equipment. Developments in plate-making have made nearly chemical-free processing a reality. Newer press technologies reduce paper waste, chemical usage (from wash-ups), and time per order. And more efficient bindery equipment uses less energy and implements automation that can greatly reduce paper waste. So while it's all well and good to use recycled paper and soy inks for your printing, if it's done on old and inefficient equipment, you may undermine your green printing efforts.
One-to-one marketing: This could be one of your greenest marketing solutions - target your marketing so that you print only what you need and use that to reach your audience with a personalized message. Click here for more information.
Green business practices: Finally, when choosing a printer, look at the way it conducts its operations. Is it a certified green business? Does it minimize its own paper usage and waste internally? Does it offset its energy usage? Is it involved in other green causes, or does it belong to any green organizations?
www.greenerprinter.com
