Sustainability at PufferPrint
PufferPrint was founded by self published authors on the belief that we can make printing your books both incredibly easy and environmentally friendly. We offer a turnkey service to bring your print projects to life, while providing the most eco-conscious process on the market.
But let’s be real, books are made of trees. Dead ones. And we happen to really like trees and all that they do to keep our water clean, our planet cool, and our spirits happy. Even more than that, shipping your orders creates significant greenhouse gas emissions.
Given that our business has a real impact on the planet, we’ve taken concerted measures to counteract those and hopefully, leave it an even better place than we found it.
Overall, we believe that any customer choosing PufferPrint is also choosing to live their values by working with a company that strives to support a livable and beautiful planet for future generations. We do this in two key ways…
Responsible Materials
We work with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified suppliers. What does that mean? FSC ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.
The inks in our books are printed using soy-based inks. Think about it, do you want your children touching petroleum-based inks in their books? Soy based inks are not only less toxic to your readers and to the environment, making them the most eco-conscious option on the market, but they can actually produce brighter, more vibrant colors. It’s a win-win!
Why Do We Love Soy-Base Inks?
Better for children
Soy-based inks are safer than traditional petroleum-based inks because they are non-toxic and do not contain harmful substances like heavy metals or solvents. So even if your little one put chews on a board books or accidentally ingest some ink, there is minimal risk to their health.
Better for the environment
Soy-based inks are more environmentally friendly than traditional inks because they:
- Contain lower levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are harmful air pollutants
- Are made from soybean oil, a renewable resource
- Are biodegradable and break down quickly without harming the environment
- Are easier to recycle than petroleum-based inks
- Can be cleaned up more easily
Better for your book
Soy-based inks actually provide brighter and more accurate colors than traditional printing inks! Plus, because soybean oil is naturally clearer than petroleum-based oils, less pigment is necessary to produce the same effect.
Responsible Operations
Offset Printing
Offset printing is significantly more eco-friendly than print-on-demand services. Getting your book printed in batches — rather than one at a time—saves both water and electricity. That means you’ll save money and the planet by printing with us!
Carbon Offsets
At the end of the day, there will still be air pollution associated with producing and shipping your books. Interestingly, only about 10% of your books’ carbon footprint comes from their production, and 90% from shipping. This ratio, and total emissions for your order, will vary to some degree, based on how you choose to ship your books.
Did you know? Shipping by sea actually reduces the carbon footprint of your order by over 50%? (not to mention significant cost savings!)
The good news is, every year PufferPrint does an inventory of all the books we’ve printed, and all of the miles those books travelled to their final delivery destinations (it’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea!) and we calculate how many tonnes of carbon dioxide this results in.
We then invest in verified projects around the world that not only remove the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide from the air, but also provide numerous other environmental and social benefits such as local jobs, watershed protection, and wildlife habitat restoration.
Below you can see the certificates from the portfolio of projects we invested in last year to make PufferPrint, and all of our customer’s books, climate-neutral.
Click below on our 2023 Carbon Certificates to learn more about these incredible projects
We do all of this while charging prices that are significantly lower than our competition. Grab a quote today and find out for yourself!
