Five ways I am making my Business More Eco-friendly
Water based ink prints, wrapped in acid free paper
Print orders once a week - I used to send my client print orders to my suppliers as they came in, so in the height of the season it could have been 3 to 4 orders a week going to my printers. That is 3 to 4 separate deliveries coming back to me. Now I order once a week, making my products slower to get to the customer but use less packaging and only one delivery per week to the studio. A big impact and one my customers are happy to support. It makes the arrival of their prints so much more special, waiting with anticipation to receive a branded package. Who doesn’t like receiving post that isn’t a bill or someone trying to sell you something.
Packaging - I use cardboard: recycled cardboard where possible; envelopes, boxes and recycled tape to seal it in. I buy all this in bulk to keep the deliveries down to a minimum. Since 2021 I now wrap my prints in acid free tissue paper rather than the traditional cellophane bags. Less plastics can only be a good thing - right?
So that is ordering and packaging now - deliveries! Where possible I organise hand delivery or collection, if I can incorporate it into another journey or one my client is making I do. The next best thing is sending my clients their orders by Royal Mail. My thinking behind this is, the Royal Mail is pasting my client’s home anyway, so use that van, that fuel, that person to deliver my artwork to my clients, it makes eco-sense to me. I sometimes have to use a courier to get packages out that are bigger or the value is too high for the Post Office to handle. I keep those to a minimum or hand deliver myself if I can.
I love new tech, who doesn’t, but I will not upgrade my camera gear that often, if it still works and does the job for me I am not replacing it. I would hate to know the real environmental impact of cameras and computers both short and long term. SO, I may not have the brightest and shiniest kit, but it works, it does the job for me and if I can squeeze out a few more years from it I will. Then I re-sell mine to a keen amateur for it’s retirement and get myself an upgrade, preferably secondhand if possible, I can have a camera that is a few years old that has hardly been used and give it a job to do, rather than purchasing a brand new one.
Printing - I say NO to C-type - what is this you speak of - Silver Halide (C-Prints) have been the go to way of process prints since 1874 printing. This process requires a lot of energy and relies on a heavy chemical process that generates toxic and damaging waste.
Yay to digital I hear you cry, well yes in a way this has moved things forward apart from the glut of digital cameras being produced and their disposal thereafter. Don’t get me started. Another story for another time, this is about printing. I strongly believe in having printed photographs, whether in albums, frames on the wall or mounted prints in a display box, this is the true heart to my business, what makes my clients smile, laugh, cry - the emotions the printed media brings to them is what I do what I do. So the environmental impact of printing is a big issue for me. How can I create this beautiful artwork without damaging our planet or its potential. I search out the best suppliers with the best eco-credentials. I choose suppliers that use only inkjet printing sprays, these are water-based inks, sprayed onto paper resulting in a beautiful print with no damaging chemicals. This comes at a price to me and my clients but I have the knowledge that the quality and colour longevity are superb without compromise and they need much less power to produce and no toxic chemicals.
Recycled cardboard envelopes for mailing out water based ink prints wrapped in acid free tissue paper
