Eco-friendly Print Design Options

🖨️ Still using ink made from fossil fuels and crushed insects? What if your ink could grow? This is living ink. Grown from fungi. Stored in cartridges. Designed to replace petroleum-based inks. Developed by GROWinK as part of their MYCO Color System, these inks are extracted during the natural stages of fungal growth from spores to mycelium to fruiting bodies. Each color (like Xylindein, Melanin, Obscurus) mirrors the CMYK spectrum, but is entirely natural, biodegradable, and non-toxic. 💀 Meanwhile, most conventional inks today? ❌Rely on petroleum-based pigments ❌Contain synthetic polymers and toxic solvents ❌And yes, sometimes include animal derivatives like shellac and cochineal In contrast, MYCO inks: 🌱 Break down naturally 🧫 Use small-scale pigment extraction on petri dishes 🖌️ Offer entirely new aesthetic possibilities ♻️ Lower the carbon footprint of printing 🚫 Require zero fossil fuels or animal inputs This is sustainable, regenerative and it’s fungi rewriting CMYK. From packaging to posters, imagine if every print you touched came from a living system instead of a dying one. The future of materials is growing, literally. And it looks like this!! 🌱🍄 #biomaterials #sustainability #ink #dye #color #printing #fungi #future #materials #innovation

These four simple innovations are eliminating carbon footprints while saving lakhs in operational costs! Over 75% of a company’s emissions come from activities they do not directly control. These are called Scope 3 emissions. They are complex and indirect. But what we can control are Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and many leading printing companies in India are already working toward this with simple yet effective solutions. Here are four such practices that stood out: 📍 Solar-powered operations Switching to solar helps offset emissions from grid electricity, one of the biggest contributors to Scope 2 emissions in manufacturing. Through solar integration, Brilliant Printers Pvt Ltd has cut its emissions by 47% and is targeting 75% this year. 📍 Process-free printing plates These plates eliminate the need for water and harmful chemicals in prepress, drastically reducing resource use and effluents. Hitech Print Systems adopted these offset plates and solar-powered systems, cutting both waste and carbon load. 📍 Energy-smart digital printing By removing the need for setup plates and minimizing ink bleed, digital technology enables shorter, cleaner, and more efficient runs. Digital printing now consumes 57% less electricity than traditional screen printing. Polymerized toner technology also uses 25% less water while delivering better output quality. 📍 Smarter materials, lower footprint At CDC Printers’ Ahmedabad facility, we’ve adopted FSC-certified, recycled, or biodegradable materials. These materials reduce reliance on virgin resources and support a circular economy. These small shifts in materials and processes can make a big difference. And as more companies adopt these solutions, the printing industry is moving toward a cleaner, more sustainable future. Which sustainability initiative has made the biggest difference for you?

What does it even mean for #printingink to be eco-friendly? One of my favorite things about our EcoAlly community is how detailed they are in their questions around #sustainability. They take the time to optimize even the small details - inks, adhesives, labels, etc.   EcoEnclose gets dozens of questions weekly about #printing #ink and how to make the most #ecofriendly choices possible while still meeting aesthetic, budget, and MOQ requirements. Our comprehensive #Sustainable Printing and Ink Resource Center was developed to be your go-to spot for questions about custom branded packaging and sustainable ink decisions. https://lnkd.in/gcX6dJjN Here are a few common questions we get! 👉 What is ink made out of? Printing inks typically include some or all of the following: pigments that gives the ink its color, binders that help pigments adhere to their substrate, carriers that carry the pigment to the substrate (and then evaporate), additives to enhance properties such as gloss, and drying agents that help the pigment dry quickly after being applied to the substrate. 👉 What makes ink more or less eco-friendly? There are a lot of factors - Is the carrier solvent-based? Does the carrier emit VOCs when drying? Does the printing process require high energy use? What is the pigment derived from? How does the ink impact the quality of its substrate when recycled or composted? No ink is perfect, but some are better than other across many of these factors. 👉 How do different inks rank in order of sustainability? As described above, ink's level of sustainability is driven by a combination of inputs, impact on air pollution during manufacturing, impact on packaging end of life, and more. Taken together, our internal ranking is as follows - Most eco: Algae Ink™; Very eco: Inks with water or soy-based carrier; Somewhat eco: UV curable, toner; Low eco: Inks with solvent-based carrier. Your printing ink will largely be dictated by your printing method, which is driven by your substrate, quantities and desired aesthetic. We can help you choose the most eco-friendly ink possible for your printing method. 👉 How does ink impact packaging end of life? Recyclable packaging can typically be printed with any type of ink and still be recyclable - but your ink choice can improve or degrade material quality in its next life. Algae Ink™ and soy or water-based inks are friendliest to the repulping process; toner, UV and latex inks can degrade quality. Ink is a bigger concern in composting, so making compatible ink choices are particularly critical when designing your packaging for the compost. Shout out to Tayler Insuaste Sarah Quirk and McKenleigh Spitler for bringing this resource to life! #sustainablepackaging #packagingdesign

🎨 Choosing the Right Ink for Digital Textile Printing: Why Pigment Inks + Kornit Digital Make the Difference 🧵 When it comes to digital textile printing, each ink type brings its own set of complexities — and opportunities. 🔍 Let’s compare a few: ➡️ Dye-Sub Inks: Vibrant results on polyester — but require heat presses, transfer papers, and are limited to synthetics. ➡️ Reactive & Acid Inks: Great for natural fibers like cotton, silk, or wool — but the process is lengthy, involving high-temp steaming, multiple washes, and precise chemistry. ➡️ Disperse Inks: Ideal for tough polyester fabrics — but again, complicated multi-step finishing. ⚡ Enter Pigment Inks + Kornit Digital ⚡ ✅ Simplicity: One-step direct-to-fabric printing ✅ Versatility: Works on nearly all fabric types, natural and synthetic ✅ Eco-Efficiency: No steaming, no washing — minimal water & energy usage ✅ High Quality: Latest pigment tech delivers vivid colors, sharp detail & great fastness ✅ Sustainability by Design: Kornit’s waterless technology and closed-loop systems are changing the game 🌍 Pigment-based printing with Kornit uses up to 95% less water, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional textile printing methods. A massive leap toward responsible production without compromising creativity. 🚀 Kornit Digital’s pigment-based solutions are redefining what’s possible — offering a scalable, on-demand, sustainable path for fashion, home décor, and beyond. Why overcomplicate printing with multiple post-processing steps? Let your creativity flow — smarter, faster, cleaner. #KornitDigital #TextilePrinting #PigmentInk #DigitalPrinting #SustainableFashion #PrintOnDemand #DTG #DTF #PrintTechnology #EcoInnovation #FashionTech #Fabric #zerowater #ondemand #PrestoMax #AtlasMax #Apollo

A newspaper you can plant? It’s real-and it’s brilliant! 🌱 Back in 2016, The Mainichi Shimbun-one of Japan’s biggest daily newspapers-published a special “Green Newspaper” edition printed entirely on biodegradable, plant-embedded seed paper using plant-based inks. After reading, the instructions encouraged people to tear the paper into small bits, plant them in soil, water daily-and watch herbs and pollinator-friendly flowers bloom within weeks. This impactful innovation was developed collaboratively by Dentsu Inc. alongside The Mainichi, guided by their motto: “The Mainichi doesn’t take action only through information, but also by solving global issues.” 🌿 Why it mattered: 👉 Printed in 100% biodegradable paper embedded with seeds like poppies, daisies, herbs 👉 Made with recycled materials and vegetable-based inks 👉 Encouraged schools across Japan to use it as a hands-on educational tool about recycling 👉 Circulated to over 4 million readers and generated around ¥80 million (~USD 700K) revenue "Printed for Greenery Day on May 4, 2016… embedded with seeds that would grow into flowers to attract butterflies and other pollinators-or herbs to eat." Some users shared concerns: “Most of the seeds are crushed during printing… it’s probably just a marketing gimmick.” But overall, the initiative sparked widespread admiration and conversation globally-showing how a single printed page could inspire new thinking about environmental design. 🚀 How this story works for India: ✨Readable innovation: What if reputed Indian dailies printed periodic seed-paper editions? ✨Educational value: Schools could distribute them to teach recycling and sustainability hands-on. ✨Branding impact: A powerful narrative linking media, eco-awareness, and tangible action. #GreenInnovation #EcoFriendly #SustainableLiving #SeedPaper #MainichiShimbun #CircularEconomy #PlantableNewspaper #ClimateAction #india LinkedIn The Mainichi Newspapers