Does being environmental
mean higher prices, coarse paper and washed out ink
colours? |
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No, no and no! We don’t charge a premium
for recycled paper. In fact we can supply many grades
at a similar cost to virgin paper. The recycled stocks
we use are of excellent quality and difficult to distinguish
from virgin grades. (If you want the ‘recycled
look’ we can supply stock to suit also). We
supply Lumisilk a Forestry Stewardship Council certified
paper as our standard stock paper which is also a
sound eco-alternative to recycled paper, and of course,
we are happy to use any type of paper or board that
is commercially available. The vegetable oil based
inks we use as standard are equivalent in performance
and printed result to mineral oil based inks.
For myths and facts about recycled papers and
information about how to be more ecological in
your design and print choices please click here.
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What makes us one of the most
eco-friendly printers in the UK?
We have developed an Environmental Management System
and this has been independently certified to ISO 14001:2004
International Standard.
We're Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC®) chain
of custody certified and that means our customers can be
assured that the paper they choose comes from a certified
forest that's managed to meet the social, economic and ecological
needs of present and future generations. Only by using an
FSC certified printer like Big Sky can the customer extend
the chain of custody and apply the FSC label to printed
items.
The main impact of being an “environmental” printer
is in the areas of chemical use, energy use, waste etc.
These standards are invisible in the final product, but
they are the ones that count.
Please click to read our Environmental
Policy statement.
We’re working on
- constantly reducing our
negative environmental impacts
- contributing to the quality
of the human environment locally
- supporting projects for re-forestation,
health, youth and child welfare and a disaster relief
team.
This is what we actually do:
Presstek Dimension chemical
free plate setter
ISO 14001:2004 Certificate
|
| 1 |
We use 100%
local renewable energy and we continue to work
on reducing our energy consumption. |
| 2 |
Through investment
in the latest computer to plate technology we
have eliminated all pre-press chemicals. At our
request a plate cleaner was developed which is
non-hazardous to marine life. We are continually
investigating the least harmful press cleaning
agents. |
| 3 |
We use vegetable
oil-based inks as standard and safer, more environmentally
friendly press washes. |
| 4 |
Any chemicals
we still use are collected by a waste management
company and recycled or disposed of safely. |
| 5 |
We look to
use equipment and printing strategies which reduce
paper waste. |
| 6 |
All our waste
paper trimmings are recycled and none goes to
landfill. |
| 7 |
We try to
re-use our waste. We make notepads out of waste
paper which we give to local charities, community
members and customers for free. We also collect
and recycle CD’s and DVD’s from our
customers and the public. |
| 8 |
 We use so much recycled
paper that we can obtain the best prices from
our merchant. There’s generally
only a small premium for recycled paper.
|
| 9 |
We give away
or re-use waste such as pallets, paper off cuts
and packaging. |
| 10 |
We plan orders
so as to minimise transportation. |
| 11 |
We pay salaries
that are at least 10% higher than the local average. |
| 12 |
We support
reforestation in Scotland, a local youth project,
our local community association, a health project
in Nepal, an orphanage in Russia and an international
disaster relief team. |
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Please call 0800 035 2557 if you
have any questions or comments on our efforts to be more
environmental or use the quote request box on the left.
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