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Jul 20, 2022
Sustainability is no longer optional: employees, consumers and the planet are demanding it. Contact Milner to find out how we can help make sure your business’ print technology is good for you and good for the planet.
According to a report by IBM's Institute for Business Value (IBV) released in 2020, 93% of global respondents said the pandemic impacted their view of sustainability, with environmental concerns becoming increasingly important to consumers. Similarly, a survey of 16,000 global consumers conducted by IBV in February 2022 found that more than half (51%) of respondents said they were more concerned with environmental sustainability now than a year ago. IBV also found that since 2021, consumers were willing to pay 59% more for brands that were sustainable or socially responsible. Milner has long been a champion for sustainable office technologies and can help your office with any of its green initiatives.
Small and medium-sized companies often wonder how to remain relevant and environmentally friendly without committing significant resources or undertaking a complete overhaul. One easy option for your small or medium-sized business is to switch to digital print. It’s one of the many ways Milner can help you save money on printing.
10% of paper waste can be reduced by switching printing techniques alone
While paper is still used in digital printing, it is usually much less than in traditional printing: an estimated 10% of paper waste can be reduced by switching printing techniques alone. Additionally, some printers may use recycled paper, which eliminates excessive waste further. Digital printers produce far less CO2 emissions than conventional printers, with some even being carbon neutral. As a result of printing to demand, printing multiple items in one run, and placing low minimum orders, brands can drastically reduce waste and costs. No more waste of money and time due to changes in recipe, design, certification, or regulation.
Milner is partnered with PaperCut to help solve your waste problem. PaperCut believes that sustainability in printing doesn't just come from upgraded printing technologies or by reducing waste, but from educating users about their own printing's environmental impact. They accomplish this through tools such as their environmental dashboard which allows users to understand the direct environmental relationship their printing has with sustainability. With the environmental dashboard, you can generate reports to show individual user and printer printing patterns as well as view the number of trees consumed by these patterns. Displaying data in this way can empower users to make small changes in printing behavior, resulting in significant environmental impacts.
Additionally, unlike other green tools that only set restrictions on your output to save on waste, PaperCut's tools allow users to alter the terms of these restrictions to avoid any rules becoming an obstacle rather than a benefit. Users can reduce waste by choosing duplex or deleting unwanted print jobs directly from their MFD printer touch screens with PaperCut MFD embedded software. Milner brings PaperCut's technological awareness and sophistication to you so that your company can not only implement resource-saving restrictions within your company, but make sure that these waste control features are working for you, not just the planet.
Traditional printing techniques, such as offset and flexographic, involve lots of toxic chemicals. Plates, which are made of polyester or rubber, need to be produced with dark room chemicals. To remove ink from the rollers, you also need to use solvents to get rid of the harmful byproducts. Digital printing uses some chemicals, but due to the ink's oil base and the fact that it needs to be removed with a mild solvent, it uses a significant amount less than older technology.
Milner offers other eco-friendly options to make your business more sustainable. We offer a recycling program through which we make it simple to responsibly recycle your toner cartridges. We're happy to recycle any cartridge, regardless of who manufactured it with our zero-landfill policy. We even provide paid shipping labels and quick turnaround times to make sure we're maximizing the reusability of any printer ink or toner cartridge.
If you're interested in getting rid of much of your paper filing and going digital, Milner can help you with that as well. Using our backfile scanning services, we can convert all your documents into digitized PDF files that are easily searchable, shareable, and come with a text layer that enables you to search, redact, copy, and paste the information.
Digital documents are not only environmentally friendly but also protected from fire and natural disasters, as well as securely encrypted, so your data is protected from hackers.
Overall, digital printing reduces the amount of physical and chemical waste that traditional printing produces. In addition to cost-effectiveness, high quality, and reliability, digital printing also boasts another advantage - eco-friendliness. Milner understands all your printing needs, including the need to be sustainable. We offer several managed print service programs to address your needs at every level, including our Complete Care Plus GREEN program which includes environmental impact reports, energy efficiency recommendations, and our toner cartridge recycling program.
While the printing industry faces unique challenges in creating more eco-friendly products, ink manufacturers and others have risen to the occasion. To meet the ever-changing demands of printing companies, Milner is here with every new change in environmental sustainability to help your business rise to the occasion. If you’re curious about what sustainable printing can offer your company, our team of printing technology experts would love to talk to you. Feel free to contact us for more details about the environmental benefits of digital printing.
