22 Mar 3 ways to reduce your carbon footprint in production printing

We’re very conscious of our environmental responsibility when it comes to printing and we are finding that sustainability is at the forefront of print companies’ agendas. Our customers are demanding materials with a low environmental footprint to align with their own internal policies and are looking at ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

One of these ways is for print production companies to extend the number of environmental credentials but there are three very easy steps that you can take now to become carbon neutral.

1. Analyse your current carbon emissions

The starting point for any carbon reduction programme is an in-depth analysis to determine the annual carbon emissions of your printing activity. Look to analyse areas such as your production systems, the paper you use, energy consumption, delivery distances of supplies and even the travelling distances of engineers to service your machines.

2. Optimise your carbon footprint

Look out for ways to connect with resources and services to help you at every stage of the journey to becoming more sustainable. Access to a carbon calculator will enable you to identify the carbon generated per print job. This will allow you to work out greener ways to produce the job by using different types of recycled media for example.

It’s possible to minimise energy consumption and reduce print waste in your regular production processes by reviewing recycling practices of both output and machine supplies. You should continuously monitor your printing processes to make sure you keep minimising carbon emissions on an ongoing basis.

3. Neutralise your remaining and unavoidable carbon emissions

Even when every possible step has been taken to optimise the production process and minimise the environmental effects, there will still be unavoidable carbon emissions. A final step would be to neutralise the remaining emissions generated by production printing systems with Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). CERs are derived from official clean energy projects which come under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

When you commit to neutralising your unavoidable carbon emissions for the year, you can get certified with evidence that every printed page on your production printing system has been carbon balanced with CERs. You can then promote the actions you are taking towards a more sustainable printing approach to existing and new customers or stakeholders.

Calculate your carbon footprint now

Whether you’re a print production company or working in a corporate print room, you can now analyse the environmental impact of your day-to-day printing practices with our carbon calculator. Once you’ve found out the carbon footprint of each print job, why not join Ricoh’s Balanced Printing Programme?

To learn more about sustainability in modern business, fill in the form to the right to download our Ricoh UK Responsible Business Report 2017.