For wide-format print service providers (PSPs), sustainability is often a moving target. With new materials, evolving regulations, and shifting customer expectations, it can be difficult to define what it truly means to be “sustainable.” According to Sara Osorio, Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs coordinator at PRINTING United Alliance, the key is to rethink what sustainability is. “Sometimes people think sustainability means reaching a fixed endpoint where you can call yourself a sustainable company,” she explains. “But in reality, sustainability is about incremental, continuous improvement. It’s more about the journey than a destination.”
That change in thinking brings important implications for printers — particularly those in wide-format, where substrate diversity, custom work, and short-lived installations create unique
challenges.
Osorio emphasizes that sustainability in printing reaches far beyond environmental considerations alone. Instead, she says it should reflect what is commonly referred to as the “triple bottom line”: environmental responsibility, social impact, and economic performance. “It’s also about people and profit,” she says, “and creating a safe, healthy workplace while reducing environmental impact and maintaining a strong business.”
In practical terms, that means focusing on measurable improvements such as minimizing material waste, reducing energy and water consumption, selecting lower-impact inks and substrates, and designing products for reuse or recycling. And regardless of the effort, it must be measurable. “You cannot improve what you don’t measure,” Osorio says. “Metrics are what enable benchmarking and continuous improvement.”
That philosophy is especially important in wide-format, where sustainability can look very different than in other print segments. For example, wide-format PSPs often work with a much broader range of substrates than commercial or packaging printers. Materials including vinyl, PVC, foam board, acrylic, and corrugated are common, and each presents challenges in terms of recycling or disposal.
“In wide-format,” Osorio explains, “you’re dealing with a huge variety of substrates. Finding end-of-life streams for all of them can be complicated.”
To illustrate, she uses PVC as an example. While it is both durable and versatile, it can also be difficult to recycle due to the limited infrastructure for doing so. As a result, some producers are exploring PVC-free alternatives or are shifting toward other materials, such as polyethylene, that have more established recycling systems.
At the same time, wide-format also possesses certain sustainability advantages. Work is done using digital technology and short run lengths, which may reduce waste compared to that of longer-run analog processes.
Is Customization Inherently Unsustainable?
Wide-format is, by nature, highly customized. Projects are often designed for specific spaces, events, or retail environments, and many jobs may require a run length of one. At first glance, that level of customization may seem in conflict with sustainability goals. But Osorio believes managing this is done by standardizing the processes behind the work. “Customization and standardization might sound like opposites,” she says. “But sustainability doesn’t require eliminating customization. It requires standardizing what’s behind it.”
For example, print providers can create internal frameworks including approved sustainable substrate lists, waste-minimized finishing, and considering modular display systems that enable graphics to be changed out or reused, rather than discarded.
Osorio says that thinking is especially important for large-scale work. Major sporting events, trade shows, and promotional installations often require massive quantities of signage and graphics that may only be displayed for a few days. So, rather than attempting to entirely eliminate environmental impact, she recommends focusing on reductions via improved planning and careful material selection. “In these cases, sustainability needs to be viewed through the lens of impact mitigation rather than impact elimination,” she adds.
Approaching this practically includes designing for modularity, selecting materials that are easier to recycle or repurpose, and even participating in take-back programs that transform used graphics into other products such as benches or traffic cones.
Perhaps most important, Osorio advises wide-format producers to consider end-of-life solutions before production even begins. “Sustainability should not be an afterthought,” she explains. “You should be thinking about these things before the project starts.”
Read the rest of this article on Wide-Format Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
