Mi5 Print, an eco-friendly print supplier…
Our Story
As Canada’s fastest growing printer, we are often asked what we can attribute our success to. We have amazing people, we really do. The team here deserves most of the credit. I think we also have an impressive production plant with a wonderful mix of technology, old and new. However, I believe that our ability to listen to our clients and adapt to meet their needs as a supplier has been our greatest strength. We set about long ago to change the way we do business and sustainable and earth friendly printing company. The following is a summary of our initiatives over the last few years.
In 2007 our company hired an outside consultant to determine what initiatives could be taken to improve our impact on the environment. In conjunction EcoSafe Environmental Health & Safety Management and OCETA, Mi5 set about to make significant changes and agreed to abide by the recommendations of the organizations provided.
In 2007 the entire building was retrofitted with a high efficiency fluorescent lighting system. The reduction in power consumption created an annual savings of over $11,000, paying for itself in just 30 months. In addition, the company began replacing all computer monitors with energy efficient LCD’s and created a simple “lights out policy” to ensure office lights and computers were not left on after business hours. Using timers, motion sensors and increasing employee’s awareness, in addition to adjusting the computer settings to power down after a period of inactivity allowed us to achieve a high level of compliance quickly.
Waste streams were identified and source separation introduced. All metal, paper and waste chemical streams were separated and sent to approved recycling facilities. The company also began to purchase recycled washes for use in the pressroom.
In 2008, Mi5 adopted a low VOC ink policy banning the purchase of cheaper mineral oil based inks. In addition, they converted their press chemistry to a completely alcohol free solution that is easily recycled and emits little to no VOC’s into the environment.
In 2009, the company introduced a waste paper recycling system that automatically collects and deposits the paper into a bin than is directly loaded onto the truck. This removed the need for bi weekly collection of paper waste and it is now collected only when the bin is full.
Mi5 also introduced a new version their MIS system with the focus on reducing the unnecessary use of office paper in the administrative and production departments throughout the operation. The introduction of the system including web based portals for estimating and shop floor data collection reduced the overall consumption of office paper by 38%. This also allowed our representatives and clients to estimate and order projects remotely.
In mid 2009, we looked upon our success of the previous years and in recognition of “The Greenhouse Gas Protocol” we started measuring our overall carbon footprint. It was at this time that we discovered some less than obvious benefits we had already achieved by undertaking the endeavours listed above. Allowing employees to work remotely has reduced the amount of CO2 emitted due to employee commuting. Less transportation of waste has the same effect. Lower power consumption, lower paper consumption and an increased awareness had already helped us reduce our footprint. Our committee was refocused to concentrate on initiatives that would help to achieve a lower carbon footprint and set in motion a program to establish a more defined environmental policy to reduce our operational greenhouse gases.
Some of the initiatives may not appear at first glance to be “green”. Many were designed to be simple process improvements to make our client’s life easier and our plant more efficient. We purchased Fuji XMF, a single proof to multiple output PDF workflow that allows our employees to rip a file only once for all output devices. The addition of 3D proofing that mimics the finished product on screen and the additional step of GRACoL certification has reduced the number of physical proofs created by almost 20%, the colour calibration and proof certification has reduced the overall percentage of customer approvals. Less paper proofs reduces our carbon footprint by removing using less paper, less ink and removing the need to transport the proof to and from the client. Less press approvals reduces the carbon emissions created in the travel to and from the printer.
We also updated our plate imager in 2010 to a neutral chemical developer, equipped with recycling system. Our system not only uses less water, the developer is a mild non-toxic acidic solution that is acceptable waste water. This has eliminated the need for us to transport plate developer waste to a chemical recycling facility.
We set up our presses on a central air system, instead of running multiple compressors, we have one central energy efficient compressor that meets the momentary demand greatly reducing power consumption.
Automated colour profiles and proof to press colour calibration has reduced our overall requirement for paper in the make-ready process of the press run.
Throughout the plant, we have continued to add equipment design to reduce the need to outsource finishing. In 2010 we added variable digital machines, a perfect binder, die-cutters and focused our efforts to keep work from requiring transport to and from the building. This not only improved our carbon footprint but gave us better control of product quality and improved our ability to meet deadlines without requiring urgent shipping.
This allowed us to reduce the number of courier trips required throughout the day and the number of direct drives. In addition, we invested in an automated barcode label system to improve the efficiency of our courier service by allowing automatic sorting of delivery requirements and reducing the idle time in waiting for dock availability. We also introduced a no idling policy for truck on the premises.
Our plans for the future…
We are now offering the opportunity for our clients to purchase carbon offsets for specific projects. We have been working to create a viable offering to our clients to print a certifiable carbon neutral job. We do have the ability to calculate the carbon footprint of a job and purchase recognized Carbon Offsets. It is our plan to market this before the end of 2011.
We have a number of initiatives that we would like to market, in addition to promoting ourselves we would like to promote the use of recycled stocks with high PCW content. We are looking to partner with other industry leaders in this regard and partner in the creation of promotional material to promote environmental awareness and dispel myth that printing is bad for the environment.
We are also reviewing further options to become certified by other environmental groups to further support our efforts to maintain our status as industry leaders.
In closing…
Mi5 Print is focused on being a leader in the print industry in every aspect of the business. We are currently in the process of selecting a consultant firm to create a certifiable system to measure our carbon footprint so that we can develop and document a sustainability policy. We are currently researching what high quality carbon offsets we can purchase and offer to the industry for carbon neutral products while maintaining a focus on reducing our operational emissions.
How can we help? Call us now at 1-877-602-3737
