Sustainable Printing for the Environmentally Conscious

If you are an environmentally conscious individual or represent a business or organisation that is, Southside Print can help by providing environmentally-friendly printing. More and more people are rightly concerned about the impact that their buying choices have on the environment. With temperatures and sea levels across the world rising, long-frozen ice caps melting and the world’s biodiversity under enormous threat, it’s becoming increasingly important to make good choices about where and how products and services are produced. Indeed, many companies and organisations across the globe now have sustainability policies in place to ensure that they are sourcing services and products only from environmentally-responsible, sustainable sources. That includes, of course, paper-based products and printing services. Well, at Southside Print, we supply sustainably-produced printed products for many environmentally aware clients including individuals, charities, green businesses, certified B Corporations (B Lab/B Corp) and so on. Our ‘green’ printing is perfect for anything from brochures, leaflets, annual reports and posters to large format printing, banners and letterheads — and much more.

Sustainable Printing at Southside Print

• All paper used at Southside Print is FSC accredited (more about that below).
• It’s also at least 20%-30% recycled.
• Customers have a wide choice of sustainable papers, card and board to choose from, including 100% recycled options and even some eco-friendly paper stocks that contain no wood pulp at all.
• We recycle all paper and card off-cuts, whenever it’s possible, throughout the year.
• We use only the most energy-efficient printing and finishing machinery and technologies.
• Our printing is fully digital, meaning we don’t use nasty chemicals in our print processes.
• Even our website is hosted on green servers, which use energy from renewable sources and the most energy-efficient server technologies, resulting in minimal CO₂ emissions.
• When delivering finished print orders around London, we even use ‘green’ couriers whenever possible.

FSC Accreditation

We mentioned that all our paper is FSC accredited. This means that our papers, cards and boards are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as containing wood or pulp from responsibly managed forests and/or from recycled post-consumer waste. That’s important to us and our many environmentally aware clients.

Paper — The Eco Facts

Some studies suggest that there are misconceptions, particularly amongst young adults, around sustainability in the printing and paper industry. The truth, however, is very positive and, indeed, the paper industry is one of the few that is genuinely and inherently sustainable.

“The paper industry is one of the few that is genuinely and inherently sustainable.”

• Over 12½ million tonnes of paper are used in the UK every year. About 80% of that is recycled, which is incredible when you think about it.
• About 57½ million tonnes of paper per year is recycled in Europe [2019 data], with up to 78% of it being recycled there.
• European forests are actually growing rather than shrinking. In the last 15 years or so, they have grown by more than the equivalent of the land mass of Switzerland — that’s a growth rate of about 1,500 football pitches every day.
• Paper can only be recycled 5 to 7 times before the fibres become unsuitable in the production of ‘new’ paper, so the role of new wood fibre/pulp from the FSC managed forests is essential.
• The biggest use of wood from the world’s forests is for fuel (logs etc.) — that accounts for 50%. Meanwhile, 30% of timber is used in the manufacture of more industrial products like furniture or in construction. Only about 13% of the world’s wood is used in the manufacture of paper.
• Printed paper products are one of the lowest greenhouse gas emitters in today’s world of electronic communications. In fact, they produce just a tiny fraction of what is produced by the ICT industry itself.
• Over 60% of forests in the EU are FSC certified (or PEFC equivalent), with over 42% of Europe being covered by them. (PEFC is similar to the FSC, with both independently verifying that wood fibre used in paper production has been sourced from sustainably managed forests).
• 71% of wood and 83% of pulp purchased in Europe for paper production is either FSC or PEFC accredited.

For more details about the incredible sustainability of paper and printed products, download an excellent 26 page report by the organisation Two Sides.

“From newspapers to magazines, from photocopies to leaflets, we believe Print and Paper cannot be beaten for attractiveness, impact and sustainability.”

Your Eco-friendly Printing Supplier

So if, like us, you believe that sustainable, eco-friendly choices are crucially important, then Southside Print can help with all your printing requirements. We’re a high quality printer in Borough, London SE1, near London Bridge, but we can supply anyone, anywhere. We care deeply for the environment and are keen to do everything we can to help others improve their ‘triple bottom line’ (social, environmental and financial) whilst also playing our own crucial part to help Planet Earth. Please do consider us if you would like to produce environmentally-friendly printing materials for your sales, marketing, corporate or private needs. Choose an appropriate button below to make contact and we’ll be happy to help.