What is Carbon Conscious Printing?
Reducing carbon emissions in printing means actively measuring the greenhouse gas emissions generated through business operations and continuously working to reduce them over time.
As part of our sustainability strategy, we measure and manage our carbon footprint through the Achilles Carbon Reduce programme, a UK accredited greenhouse gas certification scheme. Through this programme, our emissions are calculated and verified in line with ISO 14064-1, the international standard for organisational greenhouse gas accounting and reporting.
Working alongside Achilles, we regularly assess our carbon footprint and identify opportunities to reduce emissions across our operations. This enables us to implement targeted efficiency projects throughout the business as part of our long-term decarbonisation strategy.
Under this framework, we measure and report greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with ISO 14064-, Implement operational improvements to reduce emissions year-on-year, purchase 100% renewable energy, generate over 1,000,000kWh of renewable energy onsite each year and continuously identify efficiency improvements across production, logistics and facilities.
What Does it Mean for Your Business?
By reducing emissions across our operations, we are working to lower the carbon impact associated with the products we produce. When you print with us, your products are manufactured in a facility that is actively working to measure, manage and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through independently verified reporting and continuous improvement.
Waste Reduction Projects
Across all areas of the business, we’ve set up an efficiency taskforce who work tirelessly to reduce waste associated with the production of our clients’ products. This waste, whether it be physical or energy, contributes to the carbon footprint of a product. The team has therefore been tasked with looking at ways to reduce this and provide a product with a lower overall Carbon footprint.
Projects to date include:
Packaging
43% reduction in packaging between 2020/21 – 2021/22
Sheet Waste Projects
we’ve recently reduced the number of make-ready sheets by 46%, creating further savings in ink, powder, chemicals and energy
Process Efficiency Projects
we’ve installed timers on our printing processors to automatically turn off and, as a result, reduced power usage on our spot UV drying processor by one fifth
Free 10 Point Artwork Check
The secret to getting your print design right first time and reducing the number of reprints in our factory? Our in-house Studio team’s famous artwork check. Every single time you place an order with instantprint, your artwork will be personally checked by a member of the team using our rigorous (and 100% free) 10 point quality check!
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Powered By Renewable Energy
We have purchased 100% renewable REGO backed energy since 2021.
We have installed 2,411 solar panels on our roof, capable of generating around 1,000,000kWh of energy each year, roughly 15% of our total energy use.
All our FLT’s and MHE’s are now electric, removing all gas powered vehicles from our fleet.
Greener Print Delivery
We’ve partnered with DPD who: Delivered over 300,000 of our parcels using electric vehicles In 2025.
Saving 82,866kg of Carbon, which is the equivalent of planting around 4000 trees.
War on Waste Campaign
Our internal War on Waste campaign has been running since 2018, and has seen us change processes to reduce our waste output, increase paper and plate efficiency and align ourselves with UK Simpler Recycling Regulations. We recycle on average 94% of our waste each month, with the remaining 6% being sent for incineration to generate electricity.
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We’re ISO 14001:2015 Certified
We’re ISO 14001:2015 Certified
We work towards a set of environmental management standards called ISO 14001:2015, meaning we’re inspected by external auditors once a year and given a plan to improve our environmental impact. This means we’re always working towards reducing our impact on the environment.
Carbon Emission Reductions to Date
Carbon Emission Reductions to Date
One of our key performance indicators (KPIs) is the continuous reduction of a chosen emissions intensity ratio (EIR). The EIR we have chosen to track is our tCO2e / revenue per £Million. The chart above shows our actual EIR vs our targeted EIR. This number is derived from our total emissions from our core scopes over our yearly revenue figure.
Packaging Projects
We’re working towards 100% plastic free packaging and have already made huge strides towards this goal!
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Journey to Net Zero
At instantprint, we’ve committed to achieve Net Zero for scope 1, 2 and downstream to scope 3 emissions related to the delivery and disposal of our products and activities by 2030. As part of this, we’ll fully map, understand and measure all additional value chain scope 3 emissions by 2025 and achieve Net Zero for scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2035 - 15 years ahead of the national target of 2050.
To get there, we’re focusing on cutting back our Greenhouse Gas Emissions to as close as zero as possible and reducing any inefficiencies across our business, from the factory floor to the office. We will:
