How to Start Your Sustainability Journey

This article was written by the Sustainability hub of the Print Council.

The hub aims to champion new ways that the industry is creating to support sustainable print media. The hub focuses on positive and educational messaging around the practical elements and procedures needed for sustainability.

The aim of this article is to offer a starting point for becoming more sustainable in print media. This article is split into brands, suppliers and agencies to cater to the different needs each organisation has.

Brands

• Love Paper - consumer campaign to raise awareness of print sustainability.

• Postage discounts from Royal Mail – the current sustainability specification is being reviewed for use in early 2022.

• Race to zero - UN-backed global campaign to rally non-state actors – including companies, cities, regions, financial and educational institutions – to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030.

• B Corp - Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

• Government updates:

  • Environmental taxes, reliefs and schemes for businesses

  • Council for Sustainable Business

  • Sustainable Development Goals

  • LEPs Grants - government grants to support local areas

• University of Cambridge Online short course for Business and Climate Change:
  Towards Net Zero Emissions

Suppliers

• TwoSides - an initiative by companies from the graphic communications supply chain. They have a common goal to promote the sustainability of the graphic communications supply chain and dispel common environmental misconceptions.

• BPIF Environmental road map baseline self-assessment

• Postage discounts from Royal Mail – the current sustainability specification is being reviewed for use in early 2022.

Agencies

• Postage discounts from Royal Mail – the current sustainability specification is being reviewed for use in early 2022.

• Race to zero - UN-backed global campaign to rally non-state actors – including companies, cities, regions, financial and educational institutions – to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030.

• B Corp - Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

• Government updates

  • Environmental taxes, reliefs and schemes for businesses

  • Council for Sustainable Business

  • Sustainable Development Goals

  • LEPs Grants - government grants to support local areas

• IPA Media Futures Group’s Climate Charter - an initiative to provide media agencies with the tools and resources to support their transition to a zero-carbon future.

• Ad Net Zero - The Advertising Association’s initiative to achieve net zero for the whole advertising industry by 2030.

• Change the brief - #ChangeTheBrief Alliance is a partnership between agencies of every size and type – media, creative, design, PR – and their clients, learning and acting together to directly address the challenge of the climate crisis by promoting sustainability via every channel available to them.

• IPA Media Futures Group’s Climate Charter - an initiative to provide media agencies with the tools and resources to support their transition to a zero-carbon future.

This article was written by the Sustainability hub of the Print Council. The hub aims to champion new ways that the industry is creating to support sustainable print media. The hub focuses on positive and educational messaging around the practical elements and procedures needed for sustainability.