A Holiday Message For You

The Printing and Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA) introduced a consumer education campaign in March 2010 titled Print Gorws Trees. This movement has garnered attention from the printing industry and organizations worldwide!

Here is how the organization has asked printers like us to describe the value of print in the context of our daily living and the environment:

“If you love clean air and clean water, you have every reason to love print. If there is a demand for print, there is a demand for paper. If there is a demand for paper, there is a demand for trees. If there is a demand for trees, landowners and foresters who manage our woodlands have an incentive to plant more trees and productively manage our forestlands instead of selling them for develeopment or other purposes.

“But it gets better. It turns out that young trees are more efficient at sequestering carbon in the atmosphere and cleaning the water aquifer. This means that the air we breathe, the water we drink and our overall environment will be healthier. We all benefit from the thoughtful use of this magnificent renewable resource.

“Paper is a completely renewable resource. Most every community has an active paper recycling program and today, over 64% of all paper is recycled and reused.”

This holiday season, be sure to spread the message of print and help us to maintain a clean environment!

Save the Trees with an Environmentally-Focused Printer

Today is the first official day of fall, and we will begin to see the leaves on beautiful trees that kept us cool during the summer turn red, orange, yellow and brown before fluttering to the ground. However, deforestation and overconsumption eliminates an enormous amount of trees each year, or so we thought.

The NAPL Business Review featured an interesting article in their Summer 2010 magazine titled, “Paper or Pixels with that Message?” that discusses the environmental impact of the communications process in three stages:

1. The creation of the medium being used for the message
2. The transmittal of the message
3. The conclusion or aftermath of the process

The author of this article says that paper companies plant more trees than they cut down as consumer demand for paper increases. In fact, “electronics have become the fastest growing waste stream in the world”, as consumers vie to possess the most technologically savvy items on the market.

How does Corporate Graphics of America produce high-quality print collateral while keeping a focus on the environment?

• We have always maintained an extensive recycle and reuse program. This program is not only for paper; it also includes metal and plastic.
• We use vegetable-based inks, which  significantly reduce the amount of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) released into the air during printing. VOCs are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids and heavy doses of these compounds may cause short- and long-term adverse health effects
• Our printing is alcohol-free to protect further damage to our ozone layer.
• Our facility uses wind power in the printing process.
• The perfect balance of water and ink is important during the offset printing process, and we are able to print using minimal amounts of water.
• We are FSC-certified, which means that we support the highest social and environmental standards when selecting paper vendors and throughout the printing process.

For more information on our sustainability practices, feel free to give us a call at 773-481-2100.