Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in our sister publication, Printing Impressions.

As sustainability programs become a standard in the printing industry, apparel decorators may find themselves unsure of how to begin. Luckily, there are a few tips and tricks that don’t require a lot of effort or up-front costs. Much of it starts with simply changing up some internal policies.

Sustainability Program Pointers

First, get started by putting pen to paper. Outline your goals, build a policy, and share it with your employees. “If you have a sustainability policy, you’ve thought that through, and you’re making a statement to stakeholders,” says Gary Jones, vice president of environmental, health, and safety affairs at PRINTING United Alliance. “Your stakeholders are going to be your vendors, customers, employees, and the local community.”

Once you have a policy, you can start to dig into some numbers. Metrics should encompass a decorator’s environmental and personnel impact and include greenhouse gas emissions; water consumption; air pollution emissions; waste generation and recycling rates; and employee injury and illness rate. Without knowing these numbers, it’s difficult to implement your sustainability policy.

For example, let’s examine waste. Solid waste — like substrates, shipping materials, packaging, containers, and more — can be monitored. “If you have a printing operation, and you make a commitment to go zero landfill, that means you’re either finding outlets for all the waste that you’re generating — to be recycled or maybe composted, like food waste out of your lunch area — or preventing it from being generated in the first place,” Jones says.

Questions to ask:

• What kind of paper and coatings are used?
• How about low-VOC inks?
• Is the fabric or paper organic, biodegradable, or recyclable?

Learn More

You can dive deeper into this topic by checking out the full article from our sister publication Printing Impressions.