3 New Angles on Eco Paper
Heinrich Marketing
3 New Angles on Eco Paper
We all want to do right by the planet. So how do you reconcile continuing to integrate direct mail and other forms of print marketing in your strategy when digital marketing channels seem cleaner and more efficient?
Because you need both online and offline channels to succeed with your marketing programs, you need to know the whole story about “green” marketing — and some new questions and standards to focus on.
“Many people don’t realize that the print industry has made great strides environmentally,” says Heinrich Senior Print Production Manager Erika Lidster. She lists three specific ways paper companies have gotten more green:
- Reforestation and ecologically responsible forestry. “For at least 15 years, forests owned by paper mills have been reforested at a rate that outstrips harvesting for paper-making. For every one tree they cut, they plant five.”
- Higher percentages of recycled content in more papers. “Paper is one of the easiest types of material to recycle,” she adds. “And while papers made with 10 to 30 percent recycled content have been standard for quite some time,, today you can readily get 100 percent recycled content in more papers. Virgin content in paper is actually uncommon now.”
- More papers made with post-consumer recycled content, made from paper that’s been recycled by end-users. And Lidster also points out that a lot of pre-consumer recycled paper comes from boxes, trimmings and other waste produced in the paper-making process. “It’s never actually been sent to a consumer, but it’s not made from virgin materials.“ (Not sure how eco-friendly your paper is? Contact Erika for help.)
Lidster references an article by International Paper noting that the paper industry is one of the largest consumers of clean energy like wind power. “Sixty percent of the energy used to make paper in the U.S. comes from carbon-neutral renewable resources and is produced on-site at mills,” the article explains. “Taking only the servers that power the Internet as a comparison, more than 90 percent of the energy used by the electronics industry is fossil-fuel based, greenhouse gas–emitting grid power. The printing industry is increasingly ‘green,’ and companies need to start telling their customers so.”
If paper is already so green, what should you be doing to step up to the plate on the eco-friendly front as a marketer? Lidster says it’s about going above and beyond run-of-the-mill:
- Find a printer that’s FSC certified and have them help you through the process. “Forest Stewardship Council certification is making a huge impact in the marketing industry as green has taken hold in our society,” says Lidster. “Even vendors that have already been using recycled paper practices for years have to put more strict practices in place to earn FSC certification.” She explains that FSC requirements include establishing standard operating procedures to keep energy usage down, not dumping into rivers, and running their plants in a full gamut of other eco-friendly ways
“If FSC lets you put their logo on your piece, it means the paper wasn’t made by clearing forests,” she adds. “It certifies the sustainability of all the processes and products on the vendor and paper side. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but if you want FSC certification, you need to put it on your quote up front. The FSC stamp has to be put on by the vendor that is producing the piece.” (Contact Erika Lidster for more about how to get the FSC certified logo on your print marketing pieces.) - Ask about eco if you’re using colored papers. “Not every recycled paper or even every color is FSC certified,” Lidster notes. “When FSC first started, there were maybe two or three papers available. It’s actually been just in the past year that some of the papers like Evergreen, in the recycled genre, have become FSC certified; because of how their dyes were made, they couldn’t previously get FSC certification.”
- Use vegetable-based inks, but only with the right expertise. “These have been around for a long time,” says Lidster. But she says going veggie isn’t a no-brainer. “Vegetable inks are harder to match to a specific PMS color. Your print production expert needs to know how to do this at the press check; you can still hit a specific color, but you have to know how to alter the color mix to achieve it. You need an agency with high print quality control.” She notes that most Heinrich vendors now use vegetable ink as the norm. “It depends on the printing method. You may have to use vegetable-based or water-based ink if you’re laser-printing, for example.”
Contact Erika Lidster at Heinrich Marketing to get ideas on greening your print program or to learn more about Heinrich’s print production management services.