WOW, we’ve become a B Corp!  This is a significant achievement and and means we are meeting really high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

After a rigorous test, we scored 82.5 from the B Lab for our impact assessment.  This is pretty good when the median score for an ordinary business who completes the assessment is currently 50.9!

Impress is running more productively, and effectively, than ever and we are looking forward to the future as our business evolves.

Here’s to the next 35 years!

WOW! Cannot believe that we just won the Supreme Award for Environmental Printing at the Digital Printer Awards 2023, fantastic.

All our buildings are now upgraded to LED lighting, using much less energy than other forms of lighting. As much as 70% to 90% less!

… and we’re not stopping there!

We have added 51 solar panels to our existing large solar array.  This takes our Hersham, Surrey site to a total of 381 on-site solar panels, making our clean energy electricity production to hopefully be 120MW per year.

With all straight edges, we have switched to triangular postal tubes.  Easy to stack and don’t roll around like round equivalents. The triangular design also makes a group of them easy to band together for easier handling and shipping. Space saving and 100% recyclable, the interlocking tabs means no more plastic end caps – Hooray!

A shiny new latex water based printer has been delivered.  This is going to make our workflow speedy and we can tackle more ambitious projects.

It’s exciting to help lead the change in more sustainable large format and signage printing.

330 solar panels have been installed and now power our print factory and offices. This clean energy is equal to the carbon sequestration of nearly 30 average homes every year.

We are reducing environmental impact by using Process Free Plates for offset printing. Process free printing plates don’t need to be developed in a plate processor with a chemical developer before they go to press, so we’re not only using less chemicals, we’ve significantly reduced water and energy usage in prepress by skipping the processing step.

… and we’re not stopping there!

We improve our waste management process to sort and recycle even more than we have done before. To avoid sending waste to landfill energy is recovered from our non-recyclable waste.

Great News!  We have received ‘Highly Commended’ for our Sustainable Supply Chain Engagement at the Planet Mark Awards.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a major impact on various aspects of life.  To reduce the spread of the virus, the Prime Minister has announced that the UK will begin a full nationwide lockdown on 23^rd March.

Fortunately Print companies can continue to operate.  Impress is printing for front line services as well as volunteering to help our local community.

We are helping with fresh fruit and vegetable door drop deliveries, volunteering to print patterns for NHS medical scrubs which are in short supply and helping families who are home-schooling with online eco-learning resources.

We are a constant in times of change…

Leaving no stone unturned, we have reviewed the whole of our supply chain. This has included meticulous analysis of all component ingredients to ensure no animal based products or derivatives are used and that no animal testing has been carried out by our suppliers, including our inks and papers.

Following extensive work, we are delighted to become Vegetarian Society Vegan Approved – a huge achievement.

How great, we have found a way to recycle our crisp and snack packets which were one of our landfill items and help our community at the same time.

We have joined the KP Snacks® scheme working with TerraCycle® and are now a UK collection point here in leafy Hersham.

What Happens to the Waste?
Once collected, the aggregated nuts, popcorn, crisps and pretzels packets are sorted, shredded and washed. The material is then densified into hard-granulated plastic granules. The granules are then extruded so they can be incorporated into the production of different products such as fence posts and benches.

We have invested in a brand new 10 Colour Print Press with an upgraded ink pumping system to enable us to remove single use plastic ink cartridges.

We are working hard to ensure all our supplies are as environmentally friendly as possible.  As a result we have changed…

Business card boxes from plastic to recyclable card, our sales team now send out envelopes with recycled paper padding rather than plastic bubbles.  Customers are offered Large Format paper display board instead of plastic and we have even switched to paper packing tape.

We are not stopping there!

The transition to electric vehicles is happening.  20% of our fleet has been replaced with electric.  We have even wrapped them all up in our environmental branding so no one can miss us now!

Delighted to become the 1st UK printer certified with The Planet Mark™ for Carbon Reduction.

This recognises our commitment to continuous improvement; measuring and reducing our carbon emissions, energy and travel.  Through our Planet Mark membership, we are also supporting the charity Cool Earth to help protect endangered rainforest to combat global warming.

We compare ourselves to the dedicated bees, working together and having a sustainable, positive effect on our environment so, we have introduced our ‘bee’ mascot into our brand communications.

Congratulations to our team!  We have just won two ‘Environmental Awards’ at the Print, Design & Marketing Awards and the Digital Printer Awards.  Amazing work everyone.

Local Government and the Mayor of Elmbridge visit our factory.  They are really impressed how we take the future of our planet seriously and we are super proud to be presented with our official Carbon Balanced Printer Certificate.

Choosing Carbon Balanced Print feels like a purposeful and a natural progression for us.

First, we are doing all we can to reduce our carbon emissions and now we are taking this one step further to formerly calculate our Carbon Footprint.  In doing this, there are some emissions that are unavoidable so we have chosen to offset these as a World Land Trust Certified Carbon Balanced Printer.

This means that we can exclusively offer our customers ‘Carbon Balanced Print’, where both the paper AND THE print production impacts have been offset.  This programme will help protect some of the world’s most biologically significant and threatened habitats and avoids the release of stored carbon to enable the regeneration of degraded habitats and will gradually re-absorb atmospheric CO2.

Our new green renewable energy tariff uses offsite wind power to reduce our dependency on imported fossil fuels.

Becoming a ‘Two Sides’ member demonstrates our environmental leadership and shares the great environmental story of paper, print and paper packaging.

The European paper industry is a world leader when it comes to sustainably sourced raw materials, renewable energy and recycling rates. Yet the myths around paper are still prevalent amongst consumers. From “European forests are shrinking” to “Only recycled paper should be used”,  Please contact us to discover the facts about print and paper!

We have put pen to paper!  Tracking, measuring and recording our data on a journey to become carbon neutral.

Bikes are good for everybody, so we have introduced the ‘Cycle to Work’ Scheme. This saves our staff the cost of the commute and supports a healthy, happy workforce.

Impress inks are assessed and approved ‘deinkable’ by INGEDE.  The deinking process is the key step in the production of recycled paper and the recycling process.

Making the switch to LED light bulbs saves approximately 80% less energy.

We focus on the waste we produce, separating the majority of our waste streams for recycling.

The Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) have awarded us with our Chain of Custody Certification.  How exciting!   This provides trust that our paper procurement and processes are sustainable and from well-managed forests to curtail deforestation.

Phew!  No mean task, but we have mapped out our framework and set up our environmental management system.  This helps us refine our print production and processes, and great to receive an accreditation for all our hard work – well done team.

We have start printing with vegetable-based inks because they are less harmful to the natural environment than the petroleum-based counterpart.

Vibrant colours, crisp edging, glossing and bold designs are all possible while using vegetable-based inks.  A win-win with the improved ethics and environmental consciousness that comes with it too!

With vision and ambition, we overcome small challenges but stick with our beliefs to make sustainable improvements.

Brother and Sister team Mike and Helen establish ‘Impress Print Services’. A business with great respect for the environment and care for the world around us.

There is a hole in the ozone layer which will increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere.  Experts have told us that as a result the future will change and there is likely to be a global treaty on climate change.

Scientists have predicted the world will change through the effect of global warming.