Posts Tagged ‘environmentally responsible printing’

Greening Print Marketing: Green Media Conference Helps You Map Your Communications Footprint

Looking to take your printing, marketing, and packaging carbon-neutral? Consider attending the 2009 Green Media Conference held at  Columbia College, Chicago, on June 9. The theme of the conference is “What’s Your Communication Footprint?”

The conference will look at issues such as how sustainability can save you money, what sustainable products and services are available now, and why sustainability gets you new business and helps you retain current customers.

A variety of workshops will offer experts in sustainable media, networking opportunities with sustainability leaders, tools and advice you can put to use right away, and best practices.

The conference will cover a variety of media, including:

Greening Print Marketing: Eco-Printing — A Nice Bonus to Digital Printing

Image courtesty of The Stock Exchange (photographer ericortner)The trash can…or not. Although many marketers consider the today’s applications driven by dry toner, liquid toner, and inkjet digital printing to be the technology’s greatest asset, the “green-ness” of the technology is a nice bonus, too.

This is important to marketers because environmental printing is no longer just good social responsibility. It’s good marketing. Companies with “green” programs have a marketing advantage through positive association. By utilizing environmentally responsible printing practices, this gives you a nice plug for your business.

How is digital printing “green”?

1. The output technology is socially responsible. 1:1 printing is output from digital presses. These presses use no process chemicals (although liquid ink presses and inkjet presses may use solvents in their ink formulations; dry toner presses do not). They use no film or plates. Start-up waste is minimal—10 sheets or less, compared to 100 or more sheets for most offset presses.

Although conventional wisdom is that digital inks are difficult to remove during the recycling process, this is outdated. An increasing number of digital press manufacturers are now promoting the de-inkability of their toners, even from recycled paper. This is true even of HP, whose liquid toner “ElectroInk” produces at or near offset-quality photographic quality but is suspended in a mild solvent, and even of high-speed inkjet presses like Kodak Versamark.

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