Goals

Nobody's perfect, right? Part of running a sustainable business is continuing to evolve and set new standards for ourselves. Here are a few things we're working on, and you can bet we'll report any progress on our blog.

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Ink & Plates

Currently, we've settled with using a linseed oil based etching ink, which to the best of our knowledge contains zero VOCs, is certified non-toxic, and contains no petroleum or other binders (which are common in soy inks). However, some day we'd like to:

• Find a laboratory to do some analytical chemistry and determine the exact components of these inks, including any heavy metals that may be used as pigment. This is a massively expensive undertaking, and probably won't happen anytime soon.
• Find environmental experts to determine what effects these components could have on the environment and the health of people, plants, and animals.
• Find someone to do experiments with our printed letterpress items, and see what happens when they biodegrade and/or compost.
• Determine what exactly our printing plates are made of, and if there are better alternatives.

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Cleanup

Right now we use mainly vegetable oil to clean ink off the presses, and then some low VOC, odorless mineral spirits to remove any oily buildup which can cause poor inking.

• Find a better cleaner to remove oily buildup. We're planning to test California Wash.
• Figure out what the best way is to clean and reuse shop rags saturated with letterpress inks. What happens to the waste water, and how much energy does this use?

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Office & Energy

While a lot of our work is human-powered, we do need electricity for things like computers, making plates, lights, and the big press motors.

• Investigate possible sources of renewable energy in the Chicago area (solar, wind, hydro). Done! The shop is now 100% wind powered.
  
• Use only 100% recycled paper in the office (Done!), investigate refilling ink cartridges or recycling them.
• Investigate green web hosting companies that use renewable energy.
• Investigate 3rd party environmental certification for the shop.
• Sign up for an electronic fax system.
• Use 100% CFL or other energy efficient lighting, and find a reliable source for recycling the bulbs when they do burn out.

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Giving Back

For things like shipping and transportation, we'd like to find a way to try and offset our use as much as possible. The concept of "carbon offsets" is cool, but in reality it's pretty vague and unreliable. Instead, we'd like to try some things that have a more concrete effect.

• Join 1% For The Planet, which is an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.
• Purchase trees to be planted through the Arbor Day Foundation or Conservation Fund's Go Zero Program, for every shipment that we make, printing supplies that travel a great distance to get to us, or other things for which we currently have no better alternative.