Sustainable Printing
Have you ever wondered how an industry like printing fits into a world that’s trying to be more sustainable? Can there be sustainable printing?
As global waste increases and climate change continues, it’s more important than ever to make environmentally-responsible choices. Sustainable printing is possible, and it can be part of the solution as we work to build a greener world.
Read on to learn about what sustainability is, how it’s relevant to printing, and how you can be involved in reducing waste by being careful about what you print:
Printed materials are still a necessity for most businesses. Getting high-quality print materials from a smaller, trustworthy business like JH French can give you peace of mind that you’re supporting a sustainable printing business.
To be sustainable, more trees need to be planted than are chopped.
Discover More About Sustainable Printing
What is Sustainability?
People often use the word “sustainable” when they’re talking about the environment. An industry that is “environmentally sustainable” is an industry that is renewable. For example, fishing is sustainable as long as you allow time for the fish populations to regrow, and forestry is sustainable as long as you plant enough new trees.
Canada boasts 362 million hectares of forest.
An industry can be “sustainable” if the necessary natural resources can be refreshed as fast as those resources are expended. An industry is “unsustainable” if the practice will eventually burn through all resources available. In other words, something is “sustainable” if the required resources can be refreshed without damaging the planet.
Sustainability has to balance supply, demand and renewal. This means that as we humans demand products which consume resources, we need to renew those resources whenever possible in order to make that product sustainable.
Paper, from felled trees, is one such resource that can be sustainable, provided the government, printing businesses, and consumers are all working together.
25% of global landfills are composed of paper-based waste. And in the last three decades, global demand for paper has tripled. This means it’s more important than ever to be careful about how much paper we use.
Fortunately, the Canadian government is aware of the printing needs of its economy and has adjusted how much deforestation it allows as well as how many trees it replants. For example, in 1990, 63,100 hectares of vegetation were lost to deforestation, but in 2014, that figure dropped to 34,200 hectares. Additionally, in 2021, Canada pledged to plant 2 billion trees by 2030.
These changes and policy implications are an encouraging move in the right direction.
Canada mapped by only showing its forests and trees. | Source: DailyHive.com
Despite having an enormous amount of forest cover, Canada deliberately does not chop as many trees as it could. If you want to learn more about forest loss in Canada from factors like logging or forest fires, you can learn more here.
Remember, sustainability is related to the renewability of the resources we harvest. The fact that the Canadian government is working to reduce deforestation while planting new trees is a step towards making printing fully sustainable.
Fortunately, printing is not as detrimental as most people think, and it’s counterbalanced by Canada’s current conservation initiatives. For these reasons, shops like JH French work hard to offer low-waste products using energy-efficient printing processes.
Is Printing Sustainable?
Is there such a thing as sustainable printing? The short answer is yes. The amount of tree cover chopped in Canada is dropping each year, and by watching waste and using energy-efficient techniques, printing companies are also involved in reducing the national demand for paper.
We need to be diligent with how much we print.
You may not have thought about it before, but there are many things that print companies do to reduce waste, such as:
They print in high volumes to reduce energy costs.
They use energy-efficient machinery.
They offer a variety of different print methods to choose from. For example, digital printing is significantly more energy efficient than traditional print methods.
They produce high-quality items that don’t need to be replaced as often as cheap items would.
After the print shop has done its due diligence, it’s also important that the consumer do the same. So when you go to order your print materials, try to remember the following tips:
Don’t print more than you need.
Use electronic communication and editing where possible.
Print in black and white instead of in colour.
Use designs that use less ink.
If we work together to make environmentally conscious decisions, we can practice sustainable printing.
Printing at Home vs. Professional Printing
If you’re concerned about the impact your choices have on the environment, you may be wondering if there is an environmentally significant difference between printing at your home using something like a consumer-grade inkjet printer compared to working with a full-fledged print company.
Printing can be a lot of work, and you want to get it right the first time.
Printing at home has some advantages, but also some limitations, such as:
Printers built for the home market have a reputation for being unreliable and can be expensive to repair or replace.
Home printers usually can’t accept different sizes or qualities of stationery, such as very large sizes.
Home printers often can’t render rich colours with high fidelity.
If what you need is a small amount (50 or fewer) of black and white documents, a home printer will likely be the most convenient solution.
Working with a pro print company is often more economically friendly
On the other hand, working with a pro print company comes with different benefits:
They can print large amounts of items at a consistent, very high quality.
You have a choice of different print methods to best suit the item you want.
If you’re printing with a pro company, you won’t need to buy a home printer that’s not built to last which produces electronic waste.
A pro print company can provide exceptionally high-quality folders, books, or reference documentation that you won’t need to replace because it’ll last a long time.
To sum things up, commercial printing in Canada is balanced by the tree replanting initiatives put in place by the federal government.
If you have a simple, small-scale printing need, you could do it yourself, but if you want to print a large number of items, or items that are of higher quality, you should work with a professional print company. By working with a professional print company, you will receive a more consistent result and it will likely involve a more environmentally friendly process.
JH French - The Local Print Company that Puts You First
Are you looking for a print shop with both good customer service and the expertise to deliver on their promise of quality?
Look no further than JH French, an independent, environmentally responsible business that has been providing residents of Hamilton with the best quality print goods for over 100 years.
Contact us today to learn more about all our different products and services.
“Excellent experience, have used them for about a year. Always clarifying info, always meets deadlines, manages expectation and quality printing products. Will continue to use them! Very friendly and professional.”