When one of our clients came to us with an advertising project that was to be printed sustainably, we helped them choose the appropriate uncoated paper stock with 100% PCW and high environmental attributes that would provide the right look and feel for the intended product. Printing with 100% renewable energy RECs and offsetting the carbon signature of the paper as well as the manufacturing process served to minimize the environmental impact of the final product and rendered the following savings:

 

• 0.05 acres preserved via sustainable forestry
• 41 less trees consumed via recycling
• 8,353 kWh less energy used – equivalent of powering 0.31 homes for a year
• 4 metric tons of greenhouse gases reduced – equivalent of taking 0.80 cars off the
  road for a year
• 14,834 fewer gallons of water consumed

Extensive collaboration with one of our Fortune 500 clients to develop the necessary environmental criteria and sustainable logistical manufacturing process for the printing of their corporate annual and sustainability reports effectively resulted in a carbon-managed final product. The project involved printing with 100% renewable wind energy RECs and reduced VOC inks and coatings on EarthColor’s privately branded FSC® certified Earth.Aware® paper which is compromised of 10% PCW, elementally chlorine free and climate-managed (offsets are purchased matching the carbon signature of the paper where emissions cannot be eliminated). The resulting environmental savings, which were comprehensively peer-reviewed, were:

 

• 1 acre preserved via sustainable forestry
• 565 fewer trees consumed via recycling
• 114,627 kWh less energy used – equivalent of powering 6 homes a year
• 612.3 metric tons of greenhouse gas reduced and offset – equivalent of taking 123 cars off the
  road for a year
• 206,213 fewer gallons of water consumed

A client came to us with a 36 page project that was to print 48,000 pieces each month for a year. By reducing the size of the final piece from 8.75” x 10.875” to 7.75” x 10.5” and replacing the stock with 70# coated FSC-certified paper with 50% PCW, we were able to decrease the total paper use for the project by 2,500lbs and minimize the environmental impact with the following savings:

 

• 0.22 acres preserved via sustainable forestry
• 105 fewer trees consumed via recycling
• 21,321 kWh less energy used – equivalent of powering 0.80 homes for a year
• 6.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases reduced – equivalent of taking 1.23 cars off
  the road for a year
• 38,039 fewer gallons consumed

In an effort to help one of our major pharmaceutical clients to eliminate considerable product obsolescence, we collaborated to covert a marketing kit campaign from a print, warehouse and distribute model to a POD (print on demand) project. In addition, printing on elementally chlorine free, FSC-certified stock made of 30% PCW, using 100% renewable wind REC’s served to produce a more sustainable end product. The new print model resulted in an 18% gain, and ROI as well as the response rate on the program also substantially increased due to the use of integrated communications, personalization and campaign management. The average savings each time the campaign runs is:

 

• 0.06 acres preserved via sustainable forestry
• 50 fewer trees consumed via recycling
• 10,263 kWh less energy used – equivalent of powering 0.38 homes for a year
• 2.7 metric tons of greenhouse gases reduced – equivalent of taking 0.54 cars off
  the road for a year
• 18,314 gallons less water consumed

One of our clients, which prints and ships an extensive amount of marketing collateral with us, asked us to help them reduce the environmental impact of their annual packaging. Looking specifically at inputs, we reduced the overall raw materials, such as eliminating the tray as separate component, and converted to FSC-certified materials with a minimum of 10% recycled content, where possible. The resulting environmental savings results were substantial:

 

• 15 acres preserved via sustainable forestry
• 7,205 fewer trees consumed via recycling
• 1,468,524 kWh less energy used – equivalent of powering 55 homes for a year
• 423 metric tons of greenhouse gases reduced – equivalent of taking 85 cars off
  the road for a year
• 2,620,139 fewer gallons of water consumed

We worked with one of our clients to convert 4,800 pieces of 12” x 8” of backlit store display cubes printed on Duratrans to EarthColor’s patent-pending EverLit® backlit graphics, which is made of more environmentally-friendly PET plastic, consists of post-consumer recycled content, and is 100% recyclable. The new plastic backlit store displays were printed on EverLit® consisting of 25% recycled plastic substrate, resulting in the following environmental savings:

 

• The equivalent of diverting 2,773 500mL plastic bottle bottles from landfills
• 2,200 kWh less energy used – equivalent of powering 0.08 homes for a year
• 1.4 metric tons of greenhouse gases reduced – equivalent of taking 0.27 cars off
  the road for a year