Clear and Easy 
Tom and Bob Meyer, owners of Galaxy Press in Concord, California have continually strived to make their printing company an environmentally responsible business. They were the first printer in Contra Costa County to be certified as a Green Business. Many of the requirements in use today were developed with their input.

One of the exceptional things about Galaxy Press is their commitment to staying Green and their dedication shows: when the Bay Area Air Quality Management District required that printers track their VOC emissions, Galaxy Press created custom software that tracks these emissions and makes it easy to verify its compliance.

Being a "Green Business" is a voluntary program and Galaxy Press was the first printer to sign up. "It isn't easy being Green", says Bob, "but we are here for the long run! We're proactive when it comes to protecting our resources, be it the Clean Water Program for Contra Costa County, air quality, or reducing our waste stream into the land fills, we are constantly looking for ways to make the world a better place than we found it."

How can printers "green their businesses? First bring their operations into compliance with all environmental regulations, then adopt pollution prevention and resource conservation practices. The program checklists offer a variety of options for meeting program standards. Here are some examples of what you can do. And by the way, many of the listed practices will save you time and money. The Green Business Program consulted with printers, and representatives of Printing Industries of Northern California (PINC) to develop this list of Green Printing Practices.
Top Ten Green Printing Practices
1. Computerize pre-press operations
  • Eliminates photochemicals
  • Saves water and energy
2. Establish a solvent recycling program
  • Saves material
  • Reduces air pollution
3. Use alcohol-free printing
  • Impoves air quality
  • Improves worker health and safety
  • Reduces chemical use
 4. Print on "treeless" and recycled content papers
  • Saves trees, energy, and water
  • Encourages new agricultural development
  • Keeps paper out of the landfill
5. Educate customers on "green printing"
  • Printers produce a "greener" product
  • Helps in pollution prevention, compliance, resource conservation
6. Use low VOC inks
  • Reduces air pollution
  • Improves employee safety
 7. Sequence print jobs by ink color
  • Saves ink changes, labor, ink waste
8. Establish inventory control
  • Reduces waste to landfill, saves money
9. Communicate without paper
  • Cuts cost and use of paper and solid waste
  • Saves time, postage, and/or fax costs
10. Use energy efficient equipment
  • Saves energy and money

Contact your county coordinator for more information about becoming "green" in your county.

 

gra 2/11/08