Print management helps you achieve your company’s print goals. You could be aiming to reduce spend on your annual Christmas advertising leaflet campaign by 10% or increase visitors to your website by 20%. Additionally, print management can work towards other company targets such as a reduction in your brand’s carbon footprint or a decrease in business waste. Sustainable print is a key objective for many businesses, particularly those that are committed to becoming greener. Without the aid of a print management company, brands often don’t know where to begin on their path to sustainable print, and may ask if it’s even worth the effort…
The paperless office
Everyone in the working world will be familiar with the concept of a paperless office, but it’s unlikely that you’ll have actually worked in one. Figures from last year show that only 1% of offices in the EU are paperless. Paper remains more convenient for most offices, and with many documents still requiring manual signatures, paper is often the only way to go. Also, with the increasing problems of cyber security, physical paperwork is probably more secure than digital documents are. While the paperless office may be seen as the ultimate form of sustainable printing, this target is unrealistic in the short-to-medium term, and likely in the long-term, too.
The benefits
Eliminating print entirely isn’t an option, but you can significantly reduce the environmental impact of your print runs. Here are some of the non-environmental benefits associated with making the move to sustainable print:
Costs. Sustainable printing usually goes hand-in-hand with reducing paper size or print run volumes. That means lower costs for you – not just in terms of the print run itself, but also in terms of 0energy costs (if you print in-house).
Reputation. If one of your brand’s key values is its green approach, having the statistics to back up your words gives your business integrity. We all know how valuable reputation can be in the world of business – actions speak louder than words, particularly with regards to topics such as sustainability.
Futureproofing. The EU and the UK government will undoubtedly get tougher on carbon emissions and waste from businesses in the future. By having a sustainable print strategy in place, you can ensure that you’re already compliant with any new legislation.
How it works
If you’ve decided that you’d like your business to move towards sustainable print, your new goal can be achieved via two routes: through in-house printing or by working with a print management company, or a combination of the two. The biggest change you can make in-house is behavioural – encouraging staff to use print preview, print double-sided, and to recycle documents when no longer required. You might also want to remind staff to switch the printer off in the evenings, or put it in sleep or standby mode when it’s not in use. A print management company can help you switch to more environmentally friendly suppliers so that every print run you make is as green as possible, representing a significant cut in the carbon emissions of your print projects. We can also help you evaluate print designs to see how they can be made more sustainable. This may mean changing inks, colours, paper size, thickness, or paper type.
Want to get started on the pathway to sustainable print? Book a free print inspection with PMG Print Management and we’ll see how we can assist you.
