Therefore, the quality of the print work we produce does not suffer and there is no increased cost to our customers compared to using traditional and sometimes antiquated print systems. We are confident that our environmental management system benefits our company, your company and potential customers too. In a nutshell, we provide a great service which has the minimum amount of impact on the environment.

We use vegetable-based inks in our print process, and have reduced the amount of chemicals that go into the process. The chemicals we still have to use are recycled properly and sensitively.

We use recycled paper or paper produced from sustainable sources, and through biodegradable lamination, you can recycle our laminated products. Traditionally laminated products would have to go to landfill.

All waste materials that are generated through the print process are recycled.

In fact, over the last few years we have dramatically reduced our landfill waste. We used to send 30,000 cubic litres of waste to landfill each month, we now only send 500 litres per month. That is an incredible reduction of 98%, which proves that it is possible to make serious in-roads into waste reduction if the desire is there.

And we follow a programme to offset the carbon which we cannot eliminate from the process by planting trees with Moor Trees. To offset the 60 tonnes of carbon that we, as a company generated last year, we planted 240 new trees.

We monitor our use of electricity through a series of regular, weekly checks on meters. This allows us to focus clearly on where our energy is used. This enables us to plan reductions.

Peak oil is also considered, and Colour Works is one of only three companies in Britain to have undergone a Peak Oil Vulnerability Audit.

For those of you who don’t know what peak oil is, it is a point in time where the world’s production of petroleum production reaches maximum output, after which the rate of production will be in terminal decline. Effectively, this will be a petrol drought, which would have far-reaching implications for the world’s economy. The audit itself seeks to identify what the effects of a peak oil state will have on a business, and how they will operate, so that they can prepare and implement working practices which give them a competitive edge once this state is reached.

As past winners of the Devon Environmental Business Initiative (DEBI) award, which is awarded to companies for their performance at the forefront of the green agenda, we know we’re getting it right.

The ethos at Colour Works is that we do everything we can to keep it green, and as a potential customer you can be a part of that revolution. We can only play our part, and hope that other companies embrace the principles that we hold so dear.