Paper, printing and recycling
Jim Millward March 28th, 2008
We appear to use tonnes of paper in our brochures and other printed material, however, as a company we are actually very paper efficient. Our brochures are produced in very low volumes and have a long ’shelf life’ because they don’t contain departure dates or prices. We have found that we are printing less brochures per region than we were five years ago.
We are talking to printers about the environmental friendliness of all our printed material with a view to improving it further. You may have noticed that the latest edition of Audley Traveller carries the FSC logo (Forestry Stewardship Council), which means that both the printer and the paper source have been audited to ensure sound environmental practise. We are exploring using naturally based inks on everything we print and using carbon neutral printers. At present it’s not possible to print our brochures on fully recycled paper as the quality isn’t to a high enough standard, however, it’s already possible to print on paper that is partially recycled. Similarly we are also investigating fully biodegradable/recyclable options for the plastic bags that brochures are mailed out in. Electronic communication via the web and email will undoubtedly cut down on our printing but is unlikely to ever completely stop it.
You can now also view all our brochures online in a completely interactive format.
Over the Easter weekend I went down to London to catch up with some friends. Since I love all things Japanese I had persuaded them to come with me to watch a performance by the Yamato drummers of Japan, who are currently touring the UK.