Sustainable printing products: everyone bears responsibility
There is no perfect universal formulation for an ecological printing ink. The ink systems react too differently in response to influencing factors such as different substrates. For this reason, the printing ink and its – preferably positive – effects on the entire printing process need to be monitored. As a printing ink manufacturer, we cannot actively influence all the aspects of a printed product’s life cycle, however, there are several ways of positively impacting the sustainable manufacture of a product and its subsequent path. We already incorporate the full breadth of our sustainability know-how in the cradle-to-gate phase.
We try to act as sustainably as possible, even in the choice of raw materials and the relevant suppliers (taking into account the product type, price and availability). The newly created supplier questionnaire helps to collect more and more qualified data for subsequent evaluation. Our production processes are also continually analysed and optimised.
Once the product is produced and ready for despatch, we select, where possible, a sustainable fulfilment partner who offers climate-neutral shipping. We also encourage our customers to combine and place purchase orders as far in advance as possible to avoid spontaneous and individual shipments.
Printers also ask themselves: What is the best ecological printing ink for my printing technology and customer orders? Let us advise you. Because we can only find the most suitable Epple products and ideal combinations for you through joint analysis and expert discussion. Once we have this knowledge base, we carefully tailor our inks, fountain solutions and varnishes with the printers to keep paper waste and disposal rates as low as possible.
Our consultation and support continues while the printing process is being technically optimised. Of course, there are numerous routine jobs such as repeat orders. However, implementing novel customer orders needs to be planned in conjunction with the established, sustainable printing process as the choice and implementation of the printed product design can have a significant influence on the sustainability of the overall product. For this reason, print orders always need to be reassessed or reviewed.