How Environmentally Friendly Are We?

Here at instantprint, we understand that printing can impact the environment. That’s why we have measures in place to make sure we can alleviate any of these effects on the environment that might arise from the huge amount of work we put out every day. 

We’re committed to constantly aiming to improve how environmentally friendly we are, from meeting environmental management standards to our 2030 Carbon Net Zero target. Here are some of the ways we make sure we’re as environmentally friendly as possible!

Certified Carbon Neutral

To reach our ambitious target of achieving Carbon Net Zero status by 2030, we’ve expanded our Sustainability team to hire a Sustainability Manager, tasked with driving forward a Net Zero plan spanning our entire supply chain.

As part of this plan, we were certified Carbon Zero in 2021 by Achilles Carbon Reduce, the UK’s only accredited GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Certification Scheme. 

We actively calculate our Carbon footprint and are committed to expanding this reporting to include additional scope 3 emissions and to implement efficiency projects across the business. Under the Achilles scheme, we measure our greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with ISO14064, working to actively reduce emissions, purchase 100% renewable electricity, and neutralise unavoidable emissions through the purchasing of verified carbon credit offsets.

Greener Deliveries

At instantprint, we’re known for our gold-standard of print quality. And along with delivering your print on time and in pristine condition, it’s vital that it’s not at the expense of the environment.

As part of our Carbon Net Zero strategy, we use DPD as our main courier because their sustainability values are completely in line with our own.

In 2021…

DPD delivered 24,162 parcels to instantprint customers on all-electric vehicles

Saving 6,669kg of CO2

The equivalent to planting 26 trees!

So far in 2022…

DPD have delivered 28,027 parcels to instantprint customers on all-electric vehicles

Saving 7,735kg of CO2

The equivalent to planting 30 trees!

That means you can shop in confidence knowing that your next day print delivery is as green as possible!

Yearly Inspections - We're ISO Certified

We’re certified, and work towards, a family of environmental management standards called ISO 14001:2015. These standards are written documents describing how a good system works and what good processes look like. This means that we’re inspected every November by external auditors and then a framework is provided for us to follow to set up an even more effective environmental management system. This assures us that our environmental impact is constantly being measured and improved!

Sustainable Printing Stocks

We’re also FSC certified and all of the paper that we buy is from FSC certified suppliers. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international organisation committed to improving responsible management of the world’s forests, meaning they ensure that their suppliers only use paper from sustainable sources. This is really important because, by helping to maintain forest areas sustainably, we can protect different species and reduce C02 levels in the atmosphere.

As well as this, all of the paper we use for printing is either FSC Mix or FSC Recycled. So, not only is it sustainable sourced (and we’re helping towards regenerating forests!), but we’re also using the greenest options available to us.

Free Artwork Check

We check that every single piece of artwork is set up perfectly before it goes to print to avoid wasting resources on reprints. That means, whenever you send a design to us, it goes through our eagle-eyed Studio artworkers before it hits the printers. 

We check for 10 key areas to ensure the perfect print job every time – here’s what we check.

Waste Management

We work with a range of waste management partners with the aim of recycling as much of our waste as we possibly can. Just like our FSC Recycled paper, we recycle around 97% of all of our waste output. We’re a business driven by our people – who are dedicated to creating a smooth, successful print experience for you – and one of the ways we manage waste is by taking the time to train our production team up to a high standard and by making sure that we have a strong proofing system and team behind every print job. This way, any job errors are kept to a minimum and we waste as little as possible and you get your printed products exactly how you want them.

War on Waste 

As part of our constant effort to reduce the amount of waste we produce, we launched a company-wide campaign this year called War on Waste. This meant that all departments in the building were set targets for reducing their waste outputs.

As part of our War on Waste we achieved the following remarkable waste reductions:

• We reduced the number of sheets wasted in our Lithographic stream by 52.77%, which includes the amount of paper, ink, power for the machines and chemical usage.
• Our Digital printing stream reduced the number of wasted sheets by 45% – again, this includes paper, ink, power and chemical usage.
• Our Inkjet stream changed their process and managed to eliminate all excess waste.
• We also worked to reduce our electrical outputs. We installed timers on several of our processes so they’d automatically turn off when not in use. We also reduced power usage on our UV drying processes by 1/5th.
• We re-evaluated all meetings and cut out any that weren’t needed to save energy in our meeting rooms.
• We programmed all air-conditioning units to automatically shut off in the evening so none were left on overnight.
• We virtualised all our internal server infrastructure to use less power.
• Our overall waste produced was reduced by a whopping 1/3
• In 2021, we partnered with zero carbon electricity company Bryt Energy, meaning 100% of our energy usage is from renewable sources
• We’ve reduced our packaging by reducing the size and number of variants of packaging, meaning we don’t need to add as much padding to the boxes
• We also don’t use polystyrene as filler in our boxes – instead, we’ll use scrunched up paper that’s easier to recycle
• We’ve removed the plastic tape on our packaging and replaced it with paper tape
• Any plastic that we do use is derived from plants and all of the paper and cardboard in our packaging is recycled

Since 2017, we’ve continued to practice what we began for our War on Waste campaign and are still working towards developing even more and even better ways to ensure our environmental footprint is as light as possible.