Log in to access your account details, subscriptions and purchased items.
View cart (0 items 0,00 €)
ISO 14001 (Environmental management systems) is an ISO bestseller and for good reason. In enshrines good management practises, that help us all to protect the environment, and it makes sure a business meets regulations. But a key principle in this document is that it requires an appreciation of the relationship between environmental aspects and environmental impacts. We tend to focus on the impacts but consideration of aspects is just as important.
The marriage of ecology and economics is becoming increasingly obvious and necessary for business. As a result, developers are constantly moving to offer technologies that reduce product life cycle footprints, as well as perform more efficiently for their customers. In the graphics industry the most obvious example of this is digital printing which produces only what is needed, ideally as close as possible to its point of use. However that doesn’t mean that developments in offset printing have been standing still.
Not a week goes by that we don’t hear of another digital printer manufacturer making the switch to LED curing technology for ultra-violet (UV) inks. In the digital printing arena this is most commonly for wide format digital print engines. UV-curable inks stick to pretty much any nonabsorbent substrate including paper and board, wood, PVC, glass, metals and ceramics. They produce minimal VOCs so they don’t need expensive exhaust systems.
Over the last few years we have seen a steady rise in the number of companies making an effort to report their sustainability credentials. This is an excellent trend, confirming that companies are taking responsibility for environmental impact seriously. Mostly this effort is in response to what shareholders and the markets expect, however over time it means that sustainability is coming into sharper focus. Indeed, it’s becoming uncool not to acknowledge the need for sustainability initiatives reporting.
The wide format digital printing sector has started to focus heavily on textile printing. This is especially true for on demand applications such as printed interiors and disposable or recyclable fashion, which could soon supplant fast fashion as a concept. Textile and packaging printing are the two areas of print where safety must absolutely be considered from the very beginning of a project. Designers need to be aware of potential toxicities in inks and substrates particularly.
