Environmental by Design

When we first started planning ION’s business cards we were going to print metallic ink on a coated stock, not very environmentally friendly. It is extremely difficult to separate and remove metallic ink from paper. Being studious and always learning, we found a new paper that would allow us to accomplish the same look with little environmental impact. The answer was Starwhite Flash, a new FSC-certified metallic sheet from Neenah paper. Because ink isn't completely opaque, it allowed us to print one side of their cards and get that amazing metallic look without metallic ink. That same logic applied to ION’s presentation folders. They were the same problem and we've remedied them since then. For anyone looking for a paper either with a cool metallic look, or a suede-like finish, take a look at Starwhite. We think you'll love it, and it is 100% FSC certified. If you haven't seen one already please contact an ION account manager. They'll be excited to give you one.

When we first did the ION note pads, we had printed them with a flood solid on the back. Again, not very environmentally friendly. It took, unfortunately, one of ION’s customers to point out the error of our ways. It's a notepad! Why not make more note space on the back? You double the writing area and cut the amount of paper you would have otherwise wasted.

What do you do with your old computing hardware? Do you donate them to schools? If not, did you know you could recycle them? Well you can. Just drop them off at our City of Edmonton Eco Stations. There is no charge! Doing so will dispose of old equipment the right way. Not only are we saving them from the landfill, but we're also limiting the release of harmful chemicals into our natural resources, in other words, our air and water. If you're wondering what can be recycled, thrown out, or taken to an Eco Station, click here.

Eco Station Locations:
South: 5150-99 Street - Enter on 99 Street only
North: 11440-143 Street

Hours:
Summer - March 30, 2009 to November 7, 2009
9am to 6:30pm, Monday - Saturday
Closed Sunday and statutory holidays

Winter - November 9, 2008 to March 28, 2009
9am to 4:30pm, Tuesday - Saturday
Closed Sunday, Monday and statutory holidays

For more information:
Telephone: 311
Email wasteman@edmonton.ca

Why choose an FSC paper? Choosing paper that carries the FSC logo means that you are buying paper that has been harvested, milled and produced from well managed forests. The Forest Stewardship Council saves trees and protects our ecosystem. Watch the movie we created for ION Print Solutions to find out more about FSC and get the whole story. Watch the movie!.

It is the 21st century after all. There is more then one avenue to connect with your customers and reduce the amount of paper used. The combination of targeted direct mail and HTML email, what we call Targeted Communication, can provide you with maximum return-on-investment with a 1/4 of the paper used. You will experience return rates as much as 855% over traditional direct mail options. Want to learn more, watch the movie we created for ION, Targeted Communication 101, click here.

If after watching the movie your convinced, or at least intrigued about what Targeted Communication can do for your organization, please contact Craig McEwen for a more detailed demonstration. It is after all a economic time where we all have to make every penny count.

Use the Project Sizing Tool on the right to learn how you can maximize paper use. By adjusting the size of your design, you could greatly conserve resources and save money.

Eliminating bleed edges reduces paper waste since these jobs are printed on oversized sheets then trimmed. If bleeds are necessary, consider downsizing your design to reduce paper consumption. Also, replacing an envelope or inserts with a tear-off reply card saves considerable amounts of resources.

Please note: When specifying or playing around with "grip" or "gripper edge", please allow for at least a 1/2 inch.

Whenever possible, use local products and services. Specify paper produced in your region, or use a printer in your town. Purchasing locally helps reduce carbon emissions from shipping and helps the local economy.

Use green printing companies that go above and beyond environmental regulations. Look for printers that use vegetable-based ink, offer recycled or tree-free paper, purchase renewable energy and have environmental certifications such as FSC, SGP. Ecologo™, ISO 14000 or 9001.

If you're already reducing your paper use and designing for the web, consider green web hosting. Websites and database servers also play a large role in energy consumption. Servers generate a substantial amount of heat, therefore climate-control is necessary. Backup power sources to protect the equipment and data also requires enormous amounts energy. Look for green web hosting such as Dreamhost

This is a big one. We as business people use a lot of paper. We use it to proof with, print with, communicate and sell from. The tragedy with this, in many organizations, is that all this great marketing and communications material we create often isn’t even used. The reasons for this are many, mergers and acquisitions make it irrelevant, quantities are misjudged before the content becomes stale, newer technologies evolve before it can be used, etc. Long story short, there is a lot of waste for nothing and corporate expenditures that could have been eliminated.

Why not use a hosted web application that lets you store, manage, edit and order all your stationery, marketing documentation, signage and corporate communications? You order what you need, you waste nothing, you reduce your print expenditures to their base minimum and everything can be personalized for maximum impact with your customers. It can used for one office or multiple locations. It allows you to be lean and green all at the same time and feel good about it.

We recorded a live webinar demonstration of this web application so you can see it for yourself. The movie is called Web-to-print 201: Click here to watch the demonstration.

The next time you need to create a brochure, why not bind it with elastic bands. We know it sounds cooky, but think about it, why not? It certainly shows differently from anything out there, it makes it easy to swap out individual sections that are outdated and its very environmentally friendly. You could even try recycled silicone rubber for a cover. Previously used in the stamping of computer wires, this process leaves the rubber with an interesting ridged texture like slick, space-age corduroy. We can’t take credit for this last idea, this one came from a friend of a friend at celerydesign.com

At the same time think about printing it with a combination of both offset print and variable digital. Using a combination of both allows you to take advantage of all the things you can do in the traditional print world (coatings, embossing, die-cutting, etc.) and gives you to capability to re-print individual pages or sections on-demand. Printing variable digital off of a digital press (may we suggest a Xerox iGen series digital press) also gives you the advantage of personalizing your content directly to your customer. Our research has shown that this technique initiates a far better connection rate than non-personalized versions.