Doing Good while Doing Well: Eco-friendly, Green and Sustainable
The terms eco-friendly, green and sustainable have become part of our everyday lexicon. What do those terms mean to you? They may seem trendy to some, but being environmentally conscious is beneficial to all of us. So how do we put sustainability into practice as we create artwork, signage and décor with our clients? How do we do good, while doing well? Let’s break down these environmental terms to understand what each one really means. Athough they are sometimes used interchangeably, they don’t necessarily mean the same thing.
Eco-friendly
The dictionary defines eco-friendly as: “not harmful to the environment”. This term has had a negative cast in the last few years because it has been overused as a marketing term. When it comes to production, everything has an environmental impact, whether it is water usage, energy usage or product waste. Conservational experts prefer the term “sustainable”.
Green
Being green is tending to preserve environmental quality (as by being recyclable, biodegradable, or non-polluting). A green business meets the triple bottom line, ie., people, profit, and planet. Being a green company means being conscious of our entire ecosystem as a whole, including the earth and everything on it.
Sustainable
When something is sustainable, it means that a single attribute has a benefit to society instead of the entire product. Being sustainable means “the practice of making sure we do not deplete our resources while maintaining a prospering economy”. Sustainability is the idea that minimizing a product’s impact on the earth should be just as important as turning a profit.
Helping Our Clients Achieve Their Sustainability Goals
Following environmentally conscious and ethical business practices is important for our customers and it is important for Colorchrome as well. We pride ourselves on having gone through an extensive 12 month long vetting process, with one of our clients, to ensure that our production and workplace procedures adhere to strict ethical and safety standards. Additionally, we invite an independent auditor to assess our facility every three years.
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our Green initiatives.
Wherever possible, our campus is engineered around being energy efficient – one step toward being good stewards of our community and the earth. We are currently replacing our incandescent lightbulbs to more energy efficient LED fixtures in our 51,000 sq. ft. facility, thus conserving energy, saving money and being gentler on the planet. We also use skylights in our production facility to let in as much natural light as possible thereby reducing the need for artificial light. High-efficiency (HE) air conditioning units help reduce power draw during the summer months.
And we use energy-efficient air compressors to keep the artwork free of dust and debris throughout the production process. More and more, the public is asking for businesses to adhere to responsible green practices and offer sustainability options. We are eager to meet those requests.
Whatever our clients are looking for, we try to accommodate as best we can. We will responsibly source needed materials for a project, keeping our clients’ goals in mind. Colorchrome’s team of experts understands the undeniable value of the environment and we offer a wide range of eco-friendly and sustainable substrates and framing solutions to our clients.
Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials in use today and can effectively be recycled indefinitely. Glass is another. Many of our hospitality and healthcare clients often use glass or aluminum prints that are durable enough for public and even outdoor spaces, are easily cleaned, and can be recycled over and over again.
We’ve also seen an increase in designers requesting non-toxic PVC-free and zero-VOC wallcoverings as well as zero-VOC and environmentally-friendly latex inks.
Many of our clients are concerned about inadvertently introducing toxins into a space so, in those cases, we source and use natural fabric and canvas, formaldehyde-free MDF, PVC-free plastics and renewable resources like bamboo plywood and myriad natural wood products. We love using cotton rag mats, in our bespoke framing, that are not only environmentally-friendly but also conservation quality, thus preserving the integrity of the art.
We search out and work with vendors who, like ourselves, are socially responsible, employ local team members and who donate to their local community. If you are looking for specific eco-friendly wall coverings, vinyl, a particular paper or even a frame, we are proud to have a sustainable option for you to consider.
Let us Help You
If you’re interested in seeing more of Colorchrome’s collaborative efforts, click here. If you have an idea that you think Colorchrome can help you bring to life, or you have a question about available green or sustainable materials available for your project, let’s start a conversation.