Tangible Change
A buzzword that’s been around for over a decade, ‘sustainability’ is something you can’t avoid hearing about. For years, companies have been talking about improving their sustainability and working to go greener but it is only in the past few years that we have seen real tangible and proactive changes becoming more commonplace.
From speaking to industry members over the years, this seems to be being driven by consumers and clients themselves wanting businesses to prove how they are being green, and tenders are also implementing sustainability requirements within their listings.
As a result, we are seeing more and more initiatives and products being launched with the industry working to be greener than ever; but as we all know, there is always more to be done. In this feature, we speak to some of the companies implementing sustainable practices within their business and ‘walking the walk’ as much as they are ‘talking the talk’.
Constantly Innovating
A hardware manufacturer that is striving to promote sustainability within its own operations and the wider industry is Mimaki.
As the company’s technology advances, it is using more environmentally friendly materials and adopting processes that require less consumption of natural resources.
Arjen Evertse, general manager of sales for EMEA at Mimaki, explains how Mimaki integrates the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into its environmental principles. “We are actively reducing our emissions and waste, transitioning to renewable energy consumption in all facilities, and working towards achieving various sustainability certifications.”
Mimaki demonstrated pigment transfer printing with Coldenhove at ITMA 2023
An example of this is that last year, 84.7% of Mimaki’s ink sales for sign graphics and industrial printer inks were GREENGUARD GOLD certified.
The company has also pledged to reduce its use of plastics, switching to carton cartridges for popular ink products to reduce plastic use significantly.
By completely changing the popular SS21 ink to a carton cartridge, Mimaki can reduce annual plastic use by 29.2 tonnes, which equates to a reduction of 38 tonnes in carbon emissions.
Within Mimaki’s research and development, the company is constantly innovating to develop technologies addressing sustainability, like its LED-UV technology ranges which tackle energy consumption as well as its completely waterless digital textile print solutions.
At ITMA 2023, Mimaki launched a number of sustainable solutions such as its Textile Pigment Transfer Printing System which is described as being more sustainable than analogue and digital textile dye printing methods with zero water consumption and substantially lower CO2 emissions.
At ITMA 2023, Mimaki launched a number of sustainable solutions such as its Textile Pigment Transfer Printing System
What’s more, this year Mimaki also debuted a new unique concept designed to revolutionise the reuse of coloured polyester textiles: the Neo-Chromato Process. This works by decolourising polyester textiles that have been dyed using dye-sublimation processes and enable materials to be re-printed or dyed straight away.
“Our waterless printing technologies are having a huge effect in the textile market,” explains Evertse. “Our lines of UJF, JFX, and UJV printers tackle energy consumption with the use of LED-UV, as opposed to energy-intensive metal halide lamps, to instantly cure the ink as it is being distributed across the substrate.
“Whilst we are making progress in incorporating sustainable practices, challenges do exist. Ensuring that new environmentally friendly technologies remain profitable is a significant concern, as well as balancing ambition with the implementation of eco-friendly products and practices and remaining transparent in our communication to avoid any ‘greenwashing’.”
Evertse adds: “We also must navigate the constantly shifting regulatory landscape in our global markets, that are demanding more sustainability efforts from manufacturers.”
Myth Busting
Another business on the other side of the industry but with sustainability also at the top of its agenda is Very Displays. The trade printer to the display and printing industry is reviewing each element of its business for improvement, and where possible reducing any environmental inefficiencies from printing, sourcing, materials used, and office initiatives.
Very Displays has set out its five-year sustainable journey to ensure it is achieving its goals
The company has set out its five-year sustainable journey to ensure it is achieving its goals, and some of this includes reviewing the inks it uses, the outer packaging used, reviewing product range and lifecycles, and encouraging and informing on the reusable hardware Very offers its customers.
Kirsty Corcoran, marketing manager of Very Displays, says: “We have already taken steps to ensure we maximise space on all containers resulting in less journeys, reduced material waste, investment in a more efficient printer, only sourcing LED lighting, all delivery boxes being made from recycled material, 100% of our products being reusable, and much more.”
Some of the challenges when it comes to implementing sustainable practices that Corcoran reports experiencing include myth-busting and the recycling process.
“There are a lot of conflicting thoughts about what companies should and shouldn’t be doing, what materials are best, what route the industry should be taking, etc. We are taking small and considered steps in everything we decide to do to ensure it truly makes a difference and benefits the planet and customers. We’re paving our own way and educating customers along the journey.
There are a lot of conflicting thoughts about what companies should and shouldn’t be doing, what materials are best, and what route the industry should be taking”
“Secondly, we are working hard to understand every part of every product we offer (plus graphics) and what the journey and lifecycle of that can be. Unfortunately, the infrastructure and available recycling outlets for certain materials in the UK provide us with a challenge; one we’re working to understand and find alternatives to combat.”
Challenges aside, Corcoran highlights some of the benefits of working to be greener such as showing that you are pro-active, responsible, and trustworthy. “This may influence a customer’s purchasing decision when looking for a supply partner,” she adds. “It’s also a necessity now that we can’t ignore as an industry, and rightly so.”
A Circular Economy
One company that takes its environmental responsibility very seriously is Kremer Signs with the business continuously working on ways to reduce its plastic waste and operate more sustainably.
Being the largest producer of estate agent boards in the UK with almost 1 million printed boards each year, Kremer has been working with its correx manufacturer for many years of development work with its key material suppliers. As a result, the company now has a tried and tested Fluted board that is not only made from recycled plastic but can be returned for recycling after many uses.
O Factoid: Kremer Signs is the largest producer of estate agent boards in the UK with almost 1 million printed boards each year O
Tom Cummuskey, sales and marketing manager at Kremer Signs, explains the company’s recycling scheme: “This is a service that we offer to all of our clients. If we are delivering boards on our own transport, we will collect any waste boards from their board erectors during the delivery to ensure the end-of-life boards avoid landfill, recycling over 100 tonnes per year!
Kremer Signs recycles over 100 tonnes of end-of-life boards each year
“As of 2021 all of our customers were switched to this eco-friendly correx as standard, which has proven to be a game changer for the industry. Our aim is to gain as much business as possible, producing UK estate agent boards more sustainably, so that the industry’s carbon footprint is reduced on a national scale. Our pledge to the environment goes back a long way and has been reviewed annually for many years.”
In addition to its takeback scheme, Kremer Signs has also taken further steps into ensuring a more sustainable future and maintaining our carbon-neutral status, by partnering with Solarwatt to install 350 high-quality glass to glass solar PV panels, covering the roof space of our 16,000sq ft headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire.
This investment covers 65% self-consumption, which means that two-thirds of the energy produced by the company’s solar panel system powers its factory equipment, office power usage, and its electric car ports.
Cummuskey adds: “This investment over time will offer a great cost saving, helping us to combat the soaring price rises for energy, which in turn will enable us to maintain competitive pricing for customers. This is a huge step in further reducing our carbon footprint whilst offering our customers the most sustainable estate agency boards on the market.
“This form of energy that powers the production of our signage, paired with our exclusive fully recyclable correx sheet which is used to produce our For Sale and To Let boards, FSC-approved timber, and our nationwide scrappage scheme of end-of-life boards, offers an unrivalled green solution for UK estate agents, helping them to achieve carbon neutral status through their signage.”
Managing Waste
Also having found a way to manage its product’s end of life is OPG a company based in Lesmahagow, Scotland that specialises in fleet graphics. We bumped into Tristan Harrold, operations director of OPG at the inaugural WrapFest in Spring with OPG having a presence on the HP area of the event.
The company has worked directly with HP for 15 years and was asked to participate based on the proposal that they “do the thing that they say they do” – use HP's print technology to put printed graphics on fleets of vehicles.
Using a Tesla, OPG was demonstrating how the A4 printed samples being shown by HP can be used on vehicle graphics with the company using HP Latex technology to produce them.
OPG also uses Metamark films and helped the company to pioneer its Metastream recycling program. Through this, OPG’s manufacturing waste, fitting waste, and end-of-life waste is collected which means the company can put graphics onto vehicles and collect them back at end of life.
These are then processed by OPG in a way that they can be palletised, and that pallet is then uplifted by Metamark via the Metastream program and recycled into items such as playground slides, park benches, and traffic cones. The liner is then also recycled creating a full circular recycling program.
Harrold explains: “The best thing about us at OPG is that we’ve been using Metamark films for seven/eight years before this. We’ve been putting them on vehicles and we can now tell our customers that the material hasn’t changed, it’s just that the process to recycle them has been developed. We can now take those films that have been on the vehicles for the past five years and collect them at end of life when we rebrand and that’s then recycled.
“Personally, I’ve worked in this industry for more than 20 years and I wanted to find a solution because I knew that what we were doing wasn’t ultimately sustainable. I wanted to be part of that, not just to sell to the customer but for my own ethics. I wanted to be part of the solution myself as a business but as an individual as well.”
Providing an added benefit is the fact that the Metamark materials OPG uses are compatible with HP Latex inks which are water-based, non-hazardous, and safe for disposal. Having used HP Latex ink technology for some time, OPG – which holds ISO 14001:2015 accreditation – says this has helped it to enhance a long-standing reputation for environmental management.
Due to OPG holding additional certified management systems such as ISO 9001:2015 for Quality and ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety, the company can easily identify which fleet graphics qualify for MetaStream.
With all this said, there are a number of ways you can implement sustainable practices in your business and the great news is there are so many companies already paving the way to a greener future.
