Remember, when you print, print responsibly.

Let’s face it, in environmental terms, printing has a bad name. Is the pulp and paper industry guilty of serious eco-crimes? Most definitely. Is Red Sun aware of the problems and working to support sustainable forestry and to fight polluting technologies? You know it. Our collective choices about resource usage matter enormously when it comes to industrial applications like printing.

Red Sun standards vs. certification

Paper businesses have been slowly yielding to the environmentally-conscious demands and greater awareness of their customers, participating in forest-saving programs such as those of the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. These programs may be helping to sway the direction of paper manufacturing in certain sectors, and the hope that global solutions can be found to stop destructive forestry practices remains high. But there is a lot of evidence that the business of paper certification may simply be offering a “buy-in” program for some companies to do the minimum necessary in order to stamp themselves with a green label. The “certified” forestry can include massive clearcuts, as well as old-growth logging.
At Red Sun, we were among the very first to offer high-recycled content paper to our customers, including many that are composed of 100% post-consumer waste and produced without toxic chlorine. Additional steps like using vegetable-based ink and reducing toxics in our own work environment came naturally. We continue to exercise the most rigorous diligence when selecting and using paper stock, reflecting our original core values of environmental sustainability. Don’t print with dead trees, print with Red Sun Press.

Calculating the impact of your print jobs on the environment isn’t the simplest equation around, but thanks to a resource from the Environmental Paper Network your environmental footprint is a few clicks away. The Paper Calculator can be used to evaluate the comparative effects of using paper stocks with recycled content vs. those without. We find, for instance, that if you print 50,000 4-page newsletters per year on our 100% post-consumer waste paper, you’ll save over 2 tons of trees and 1,642 pounds of greenhouse gases over printing the same job on virgin paper.

We have used vegetable-based inks (a combination of soy, linseed oil and other vegetable oils) since the early 1990’s.
Red Sun Press has been recycling all of our own waste paper since 1988, more than 50 tons of waste paper per year from our pressroom and offices. We have an ongoing program of donating usable waste paper and out of date paper sample books to local schools and daycare centers.
Additionally, we have changed our pressroom solvents to products with lower VOC’s, and we use alcohol-free fountain solutions on all of our offset presses. In 2006 we installed a computer-to-plate system that eliminated film (which contained silver) from our production process. And we continue to recycle our metal printing plates.

Of course, the art and science of printing with a low-impact process requires a little more thought and finesse than traditional print operations. The paper needs more babying at every stage, from storing it to rolling it through the presses. With our years of experience, you can count on Red Sun to get low-VOC vegetable inks to look great even on the most challenging recycled paper surfaces.

Non-PVC fabrics

For banners and signs we offer alternatives to the standard vinyl (PVC) banners commonly available. The same properties that make PVC durable make it highly toxic to the environment. That’s why we print on polyester taffeta or polypropylene. While still synthetic, these are more environmentally stable, and the woven material has a beautiful fabric feel.

However, if you need vinyl for a particular application we will always accommodate.