Is Printing Green?

Here are a few snippets from the brochure, “Why Print is Green” from The Print Council (see the full text by clicking on the images to the right – link to the on-line brochure coming soon):

“In its effort to breathe and be cool, the planet has no greater friend than trees, and trees have no greater friend than print.  Sure, we harvest trees, but we plant them, too – on average 5 million trees are planted every day in the U.S.”

“Less than 10 percent of U.S. power comes from renewable sources, but in the pulp and paper industry, that figure is greater than 60 percent.”

“The average person’s paper use for a year – 400 pounds – is produced by 500 kilowatt hours of electricity, the amount to power one computer continuously for 5 months.”

“Print providers have also made great strides in eliminating volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which contribute to harmful ozone formation in the atmosphere.”

Here’s what Highlight does to be “green”:

We recycle tons of paper every year.

We run our plant as efficiently as possible with set-back thermostats set at sensible temperatures during the work day, and lights turned off when not in use.

We are considered a “minimum waste generator” by Hennepin County, and have worked to make sure that the chemicals we use have the least environmental impact possible.

We are familiar with and encourage our clients to use paper that has at least one of the following certifications or green-initiative indications to ensure responsible forest stewardship:  FSC, SFI, Green Seal, Rainforest Alliance, Green-e Certification, windpower use, and/or PCW content indicator.  Some of the papermills this includes, are:

* Appleton
* Boise
* Cascade
* Domtar
* Finch
* Georgia-Pacific
* International Paper
* Mohawk (one of the most committed to being green)
* Neenah
* NewPage
* Sappi
* Smart Papers
* Wausau