Our Environmental Efforts
EBSCO Media works diligently to minimize the envrionmental impact of manufacturing. Here's how we can work together for a better environment:

Environmental Initiatives 

Vegetable Inks
EBSCO Media uses vegetable-based inks, which are less harmful to the environment than petroleum-based alternatives.

Material Reclamation
EBSCO Media has been recycling all paper trimmings and makeready sheets since 1985. Press plates, solvents and waste ink are also collected for distribution to recycling centers, not landfills.

Sequencing of Jobs
Our production coordinators work to sequence jobs by type as much as possible. This reduces the labor associated with changing over presses and reduces the amount of ink waste.

Computerized Prepress
Our electronic prepress methods skip the film stage entirely. Not only does this speed production time and reduce costs for our clients, it eliminates photochemicals and reduces the amount of water and energy used in every job. Very short runs can be produced digitally, thereby eliminating the plate stage as well. By providing both offset and digital production methods, EBSCO Media can match your job to the most appropriate method of production.

Lean Manufacturing
Our employees are trained in Lean Manufacturing methods and regularly participate in kaizen events designed to root out waste throughout our system -- from office processes to the production floor. By constantly working to reduce the number of steps in our processes and eliminate errors, we become much more efficient, which is good for the environment.

What You Can Do

Recycled Papers
By specifying papers that contain a high percentage of recycled content, you can reduce the environmental impact of your projects considerably. EBSCO Media offers a range of recycled papers to choose from.

Learn the language of paper to make better decisions. Here are some industry terms you will see in paper books and how they translate:

Virgin Fiber - 100% "pure" fiber from trees
Post-Consumer Content - Waste materials
VOCs - Volatile organic compounds (such as those found in petroleum-based inks)
PCF - Processed chlorine-free
TCF - Totally chlorine-free
ECF - Elemental chlorine-free
FSC - Forest Stewardship Council
CFPA - Chlorine Free Product Association

Green Design
Ultimately, the choices made by the designer have the most significant effect on the environmental impact of a piece. And these choices are not limited to specifying recycled paper. Here are a few more things you can do to reduce the waste associated with your jobs:

• Design for standard sheet sizes. This will reduce the amount of trim paper.
• Avoid metallic inks, which tend to degrade and have higher VOC emissions.
• Avoid coatings such as varnishes, UV and lamination when possible.
• Reduce your quantities by better managing your data. Most lists contain erroneous addresses that will never receive the materials mailed to them.
• Print digitally. Toner is 100% non-toxic and produces less chemical waste than ink.
• Reduce page counts.
• Elminate glues when possible. Design creatively with folds and tabs instead.

More ideas for designers can be found at:
http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/printbuyer.html