Eco-designing print communications: small decisions, big results in sustainability

When we talk about sustainability strategies for customer communication, we almost always think of digitalization. But the reality in banking, insurance, utilities and NGOs is that postal mail and printed media are still key for certain groups, legal obligations or recruitment and loyalty campaigns.

The good news is that when you decide to make a printed communication, you can eco-design it to reduce its environmental impact: less carbon footprint, better recyclability and less resource consumption (including water in subsequent recycling).

Below, we share some very concrete decisions that your marketing and procurement teams can start implementing now.

Every centimeter of paper counts. Reducing the size of the product or adjusting the design to make better use of the surface area allows:

• Use less paper per communication, directly reducing the weight of the shipment.
• Optimize the format so that more units can be printed per sheet, generating less waste and less waste.

At the same time, choosing an appropriate grammage (g/m²), while maintaining sufficient quality for readability and brand perception, makes it possible to reduce the number of pages:

• The carbon footprint associated with paper manufacturing.
• The impact on transportation (less kg moved).

In terms of product, the “optimum” is often no longer the thickest brochure or the heaviest letter, but the right information in the right medium.

Another very powerful eco-design lever is product simplification:

• Design “complet” formats without a separate envelope (e.g. self-sealing letters), thus avoiding an additional component.
• Replace conventional plastic cards with recyclable, biodegradable plastic cards or integrated cards.
• Avoid combinations of materials that are difficult to separate at the recycling plant (UV varnishes, plasticizers, etc.).

Fewer components are involved:

• Less materials to produce and transport.
• Better recyclability of the final product, because the paper reaches the blue garbage can with fewer “contaminants” and the paper pulp generation process is more efficient.

Always, from a life cycle perspective, a product with fewer and more homogeneous materials means a more sustainable product.

It’s not just the paper that matters. The way you print also influences sustainability:

• Use designs with less ink coverage (light backgrounds, less masses of color).
• Adjust opacity and saturation of images and text, without losing legibility or impact, but reducing the amount of ink per statement.
• Prioritize, when the message allows it, black and few colors against large full-color backgrounds.
• Promote the use of vegetable or water-based inks, which facilitate the paper deinking process in recycling. These inks are predominant in digital printing systems.

All this improves:

• The reuse of fibers in paper recycling (less problems in deinking).
• The quality of the resulting recycled paper, and thus the efficient use of water and chemicals in the recycling plants.

The choice of paper is a strategic decision:

• Opting for chain-of-custody certified papers (FSC or PEFC) guarantees that the fiber comes from responsibly managed forests.
• Incorporating elements that incorporate recycled paper helps to close the loop and reduce pressure on primary forests.

This not only reduces the environmental footprint of the product, but also helps to:

• Avoid deforestation associated with poor forest management practices.
• Maintain biodiversity and ecological functions of forest ecosystems (water, soil, carbon sequestration).

Every printed communication can become an ally of biodiversity if the paper is selected with verifiable sustainability criteria.

Although not all improvements translate immediately into a quantitative indicator, measuring what is measurable helps to make decisions:

• Total product weight (paper + packaging).
• Carbon footprint of paper according to the manufacturer’s emission factor. Not all manufacturers provide this data, but more and more are doing so.
• % recycled content.
• % of paper with FSC/PEFC custody certification.

The eco-design of printed communications is not a fad, it is a real lever for the ESG objectives of organizations:

• Reduces carbon footprint and waste.
• Improves recyclability and downstream environmental performance (recycling plants, water and energy consumption).
• Reinforces the sustainability story to customers, regulators and investors, with tangible and explainable changes.

Organizations that systematically integrate these criteria into their physical and digital communication mix will be one step ahead: less environmental impact, more efficiency and better customer experience.