Our Commitment Is To Reduce Our Carbon Footprint.
We are constantly looking for ways to help reduce our environmental impact to supply our products and services, while considering reuse, and recycle methodology where possible. We currently manage our waste footprint with separate cardboard and paper container solutions, trash compaction, and ink disposal management.
Dye Sublimation
Our dye sublimation process involves turning a solid directly into a gas. This process requires no water waste. Now, compared to screen printing for example, screen printing uses large amounts of water, which results in heavy water waste. Dye sublimation is an environmentally conscious choice for graphic solutions especially when combined with recycled polyester fabrics.
Screen Printing
We have eliminated the use of harmful chemicals associated with film development, for our screen- printing process. Expired waste products are shipped to a local waste treatment plant for processing.
Digital Printing
Our digital presses do not require plates and solvents (to clean the press between each job) and storage of documents. Plus, the most significant footprint by far is the paper itself, as you are cutting down trees to begin with.
The digital printing carbon footprint is far lower than traditional press work. In our digital print area, we have converted to LED curing systems on 95% of our UV press platforms. The LED curing platform has reduced our energy consumption by over 50% compared to traditional UV mercury vapor curing methods. This is a large savings considering we run these presses on average 16 hours per workday.
We recycle all our waste inks; with 40% of our digital inks being eco-friendly water based.
All residual waste ink and cleaners are drained into enclosed containers and sent to a local waste company for processing.
We have replaced polyethylene print material wherever possible (determined by our client’s needs) and use post-consumer recycled fibre materials, SFI certified, SFI standards, FSC certified, KIWA Certified, and FSSC Certified.
Packaging
We have invested in a custom-size box production machine; this has eliminated non-recyclable stuffing requirements.
Manufacturing Plant
We have upgraded our central production floor lights from fluorescent, and halogen lights, to high efficiency LED lights.
Administration
We participate in a recycling program for all our paper and corrugate offcuts and other office recyclables.
Recyclable Materials
- Image max – 100% recyclable with 30% post-consumer material, FSC Certified.
- Infinity board – is the only green 100% recyclable product in this category of EPVA, making it the logical choice over any other expanded PVC.
- Coroplast – uses polypropylene copolymers – recycles at the end of their useful life into plastic milk cartons and detergent bottles.
- Natural Packaging Corrugate – 100% recyclable, 97% recycled fiber.
- Falcon board – 100% recyclable, 95% recycled material, SFI Certified.
- C Flute – B-Flute – 100% recyclable, 72.2% made from recycled fibre, and 69.3% post-
materials, FSC certified, KIWA Certified, and FSSC Certified.
Associations
Aevitas Hazardous Waste Disposal – Innovative, Ecological Solutions.
Global warming, smog, acid rain, deforestation, and wildfires, are just few of the
environmental issues that we are all currently facing globally.
It’s everyone’s responsibility to make simple changes helping reduce the carbon footprint and ensuring this planet can be enjoyed for generations to come. Cowan Graphics is committed to doing our part as an organization, educating our customers, and our staff members of the importance of our green initiative.