Achievements in sustainability made across the print industry

Businesses across the printing industry have been increasingly looking at ways they can push for greater environmental responsibility and reduce ecological impact, as the importance of sustainability increases from both a company and customer perspective. Here, we look at a range of companies that have recently announced developments which seek to tackle environmental issues.

Konica Minolta

Printing manufacturer Konica Minolta has announced that 100% of the energy that its Mechatronics production site in Japan uses comes from renewable sources.

The achievement follows in the steps of Konica Minolta Group’s other global production sites. This latest achievement means that all of the company’s sites that manufacture multifunctional printers (MFPs) and digital printing systems, excluding toner printers, now procure all of their electricity from renewable sources.

The conversion to renewable energy sources is part of Konica Minolta’s efforts to achieve ‘net zero’ CO2 emissions across the company. In May 2023, it announced a new vision to achieve net zero from the product life cycle by 2050, revised upward from a previously planned reduction of 80%.

In July 2024, the company’s net-zero targets were validated by the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative, an organisation aiming to help companies attain the net-zero targets of The Paris Agreement adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in 2015.

Konica Minolta is also a member of RE100, an international leadership initiative bringing together businesses committed to sourcing 100% renewable energy for their operations.

Konica Minolta Mechatronics installed a solar power system at its head office in 2021, providing around 13% of the electricity required by the head office plant. It attained the goal of procuring 100% of the electricity it uses from renewable sources by purchasing and applying non-fossil certificates with tracking at its four sites, including the head office plant.

Introduced for power consumers in Japan in 2021, non-fossil certificates are documents that certify the environmental value of electricity generated from non-fossil power sources that do not emit CO2.

A New Narrative for Print

Both Konica Minolta UK and printing manufacturer Ricoh UK have highlighted print’s perceived sustainability as one of the key reasons behind sponsoring of the IPIA’s newly launched New Narrative for Print initiative.

Utilising data science technology and analytical tools in collaboration with communications agency Madano, the research initiative tracked 12,000 online conversations across social media, media outlets, blogs, and forums to understand how the print industry is perceived on topics including its sustainable credentials. The findings were recently published in a white paper, currently only available to IPIA members and the press.

Speaking about A New Narrative for Print and the perception of print’s sustainability, Malcolm Smith, category manager of Professional Print at Konica Minolta UK, says: “Unfortunately print sometimes suffers from unfair and inaccurate misconceptions, such as that it is unsustainable, ineffective, or outdated, and it is vital that we address any problems with the public narrative.

“Print, unlike digital, has an easily recognisable recycling route and has a high impact on the audience compared to the digital overload. A New Narrative for Print takes an expertly targeted view, and we are delighted to add our own considerable print industry weight behind this essential initiative.”

Tim Carter, commercial print director at Ricoh UK Graphic Communications, adds: “We are really proud to be part of this exciting project, and it’s forming part of our commitment and focus.

“We believe print delivers a different, emotive outcome; it makes things happen; it enables decisions to be made. Print still remains unique in terms of its resilience, its permanence, and trust. Ricoh continues to advocate, innovate, and invest in print as we believe it will remain an important part of the communication mix in the future.”

Tag Systems

Ricoh equipment has been utilised for several projects which aim to promote more sustainable practices within printing.

Bank card and gift card manufacturer, Tag Systems UK, has recently worked with Green Gift Cards, a British developer of environmentally friendly cards, to produce a wide range of sustainable gift card options made from recyclable rigid paper.

The new printing method utilises Ricoh’s Pro C9500 sheetfed press.

According to Tag Systems, the use of rigid, high caliper, digitally printed paper-based stock was not previously possible on dry toner presses. However, the latest technology evolution of Ricoh’s Pro C9500 now enables printing on a range of paper stocks of up to 800 microns.

According to data released by CarbonQuota in 2024, most cards are currently printed on non-recyclable PVC plastic that have an associated carbon emission impact of 46.97g of CO2 per card when digitally printed. Gift cards that are digitally printed on a paper-based substrate, by comparison, are fully recyclable and have a carbon emission impact of just 4.28 grams of CO2 each. 

PrintVis

CarbonQuota also recently announced a strategic partnership with PrintVis, a cloud-based business management platform for the print industry. The partnership enables Print Vis to integrate automated carbon footprint calculations into its print management solution.

Through this integration, PrintVis customers can now access carbon footprints for every print order via CarbonQuota's existing calculator technology, enabling print and packaging businesses to track and measure their environmental impact during their operations.

Speaking of the CarbonQuota collaboration, PrintVis chief executive officer Kasper Tomshoej says: "It has never been more crucial to track and calculate carbon data to analyse, reduce, and track carbon emissions.

“The integration offers a unique opportunity for our customers to easily calculate carbon emissions on each order, empowering them to make data-driven sustainability decisions. CarbonQuota's expertise in the print industry, combined with its powerful solutions, makes this partnership a game changer for our customers looking to reduce their environmental impact."