Event sustainability group, isla, has launched a membership and working group specifically focused on solving the challenges around sustainable print. The group has been bought together to specifically target one of the key areas of event-based environmental waste, and create solutions to reduce its impacts environmentally.
The membership is open to all event service providers that work in the events industry and have large format print services in house. The working group is made up of the print service suppliers and existing isla members from both agency and supply side, and already includes: Macro Art, RHM Event Graphics, The Graphical Tree, Spectral Creative and Rocket Graphics, as well as Human Built and Xquisite productions, who were already members of isla.
isla co-founder Anna explained, “The world of sustainable print can be confusing with conversations often starting and ending with ‘sustainable’ materials. Often this doesn’t include discussion about what a sustainable material actually is and doesn’t take into account the end of life impact. Products are often marketed as ‘recyclable’ without the facilities to actually recycle them, or they need to be collected in such large volumes as to make recycling impractical and it just doesn’t happen”.
Ben, co-founder of isla, also shared his thoughts on print and sustainability, “Everyone knows the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra and that we should be avoiding ‘single use’, but what does that actually mean in a graphics context? Global aims are to transition to a circular economy, so we’ve developed some simple messages that everyone should know to help the translation. We’ll be working with our members to provide further guidance on the issue and support and resources for best practice.”
As part of their membership, the new print and graphics members are committing to:
1. Share resources and knowledge to improve practices
2. Work together to unlock the scale needed to divert hard to recycle materials from landfill or incineration
3. A unified voice on key sustainability messages to clients and stakeholders
Michael Green, Managing Director of Macro Art says “The creation of isla is both timely for our industry, and very welcome, in particular to MacroArt; for too long, the subject has been driven by emotion and marketing, when for it to be effective and impactful, it must be objective, scientifically informed and quantifiable. As our recent commitment demonstrates, we will be walking the walk, not just talking the talk, with impartial external monitoring, real starting points and achievable but challenging targets. We welcome the chance to share our learning and experiences with others. “
