“Greenwashing” – have you heard the term yet? It refers to companies that claim to be more eco-friendly than they really are, like products that mention “organic” or “all natural” in their advertising but are mostly made up of chemicals. Most recently, greenwashing has been linked with one of the most well-known “green” designers, Stella McCartney.
From the Green by Design blog
Stella McCartney released a few faux leather bags last year. They were classic Stella style – colorful and quirky with classic lines. However, many critics started noticing that the words “eco-friendly” and “green” started to be thrown around in the description of the bags, despite the fact that their only green claim was the fact that they were faux leather.
*Sigh* – it’s just not that easy being green these days, is it? And what do you think, dear readers – is not using a controversial material for a handbag a worthy-enough reason to be labeled as eco-groovy? It’s a question we here at PsPrint have dealt with. We understand that when it comes to being a printing company, we have to work with paper. And though everyone knows paper grows on trees, it doesn’t, really. Here’s what we’ve done to be as green as possible:
- We recycle all of our paper waste. So you can feel good about using PsPrint for all of your printing needs.
- We have printing facilities on both the East and West Coasts. By automatically printing your products at the facility closest to you, shipping distances are reduced. This cuts the amount of fossil fuels required to deliver your products.
- We use soy-based inks rather than petroleum-based inks. Soy inks emit fewer VOCs (volatile organic compounds) than traditional petroleum inks and are also helpful in recycling.
- We offer 100 percent recycled paper stocks for most of our printed products. These products include business cards, greeting cards, postcards, panel cards, brochures, booklets, sales data sheets, newsletters and calendars.
We hope that’s a start. We want our customers to feel good – not guilty – about ordering their printing materials, especially since most of their livelihoods depend on it. What do you do – if anything – to be green? And do you think it’s enough?
[...] business with McDonald’s reminds me of a post I wrote a few weeks ago about the impulsive labeling of products as “green” – specifically, Stella McCartney’s handbags that are not made of leather. The question I posed [...]
Great ideas!!!