Carbon in print

Measuring the carbon impact of print procurement

Would you like to find out more about the carbon values of your printed materials? Greenhouse are one of the Uk's leading centres for sustainable printing services. Established in 1993 we have consistently striven for a more sustainable means of print production and in 2009 introduced our unique Carbon Calculator.

Carbon values in your printing estimate

In developing our Carbon Calculator, we wanted to offer customer real choice when making choices in print procurement. That is why, from the start, we wanted to produce a Carbon Calculator that could indicate the amount of carbon in a printed piece at the estimating stage. In this way consideration could be given to the carbon impact of jobs based on a specification. Customers could then change the specifications and see how this impacted upon the carbon generated by the printed piece.

The carbon impact of paper, run length and print processes

When you recieve an estimate from Greenhouse you will be able choose to reduce your carbon impact by getting additional quotes using different paper stocks, changing the run length and altering the processes used in the production of the printed piece. Considerations you may want to give include how does the carbon generated be effected by:

• The paper stock used
• The run length needed
• The process used (ie digital vrs litho)

Carbon measurements per item produced

The carbon calculator allows a customer to estimate the amount of carbon produced per item. This is beneficial in two ways:

• It allows the use of our carbon calculator on the items printed
• It allows a carbon calculation as to the carbon cost of a printed form of communication vrs an alternative form. For example, research at Havard University suggested a google search uses 15gms of carbon.