Environmental Responsibility
We take many steps to be environmentally conscious and to minimize the impact our manufacturing processes have on the environment.
Facilities
Our Eagan facility is particularly energy efficient. We cool our building in Eagan 12 months out of the year. Even in the cold winter months of Minnesota, we generate enough heat with our printing equipment that we need to run the air conditioners. Our chilled water and air handler based system provides many benefits including tapping the cold outside air for energy savings. Air coolers on the roof of our building allow us to chill the water in the winter with nothing but outside air. This dramatically decreases the energy needed to cool our building while still providing the type of climate and humidity controls needed to run our operation.
Paper and Packaging Use
We use 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper for all of our internal work orders, invoices and other office paper needs. This move alone saves 192 million BTU's of energy, 25,000 pounds of greenhouse gases, and 100,000 gallons of waste water per year compared to using non-recycled paper. We are continuously working to reduce our office paper usage across our operations.
We also recycle as much of our own waste as possible. As you can imagine, we receive a lot of materials to be used for producing orders. On an annual basis, we recycle more than 150 tons of paper and corrugated cardboard (mostly packing materials) at our Eagan Headquarters alone! We have worked with Kodak and our press paper suppliers to minimize packing materials as much as possible to generate the least amount of waste.
Press Printing
We are a fully certified Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) printer with a chain-of-custody certificate. This means we have been audited and inspected to properly handle FSC certified products. Only printers with a FSC chain-of-custody certificate can claim the papers they use as FSC certified. FSC is an organization established to promote the responsible management of the world's forests. FSC certified products are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.
We offer a range of press product papers that feature recycled content and are FSC certified. We offer our Art Recycled, a FSC certified paper made from 100% post-consumer waste paper, that is made with a carbon neutral and wind powered offset production process. We also offer our Standard Semi-Gloss which is FSC certified and contains 50% recycled content (40% pre-consumer and 10% post-consumer).
We use the latest HP Indigo digital printing presses that feature an onboard waste-oil recycling system. This decreases waste oils by 50% compared to older models. What waste is left is water and a small amount of oil, which is then processed and recycled 100% into a fuel by a third party recycler. HP Indigo printed products can be fully de-inked, so when your customers are done with them they can easily enter the recycling stream.
A combination of FSC certification, papers with post-consumer waste recycled content, and printing presses with onboard waste recycling means Press Printed Products from WHCC are some of the most environmentally friendly photo products available today.
Photographic Printing
We process all of our photo chemistry waste to exceed requirements before discharge. We remove the suspended silver from the spent photo chemistry, aiming for under 5 parts per million before safely disposing of the chemistry. Photo chemistry is used in the production of your photographs and the waste solution contains approximately 2,250 parts per million of silver. Our two-stage silver recovery system first removes the silver by electrolytic plating. This gets the suspended silver down to around 175 parts per million. The solution is then processed again, this time through canisters to remove as much of the heavy metal as possible. This is how we remove silver from photo chemistry waste down to less than 5 parts per million.
Shipping
The corrugated cardboard boxes we use for packaging and shipping are also environmentally friendly. Most of the boxes used in our Dallas and Fresno locations are made from 100% post-consumer waste and the boxes in Eagan are made from well-managed and sustainable forests under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Corrugated cardboard is also easily recyclable either with a recycler or on your own. With our unbranded and brown boxes, feel free to re-use our boxes for shipping products to your clients!
Our multiple locations put us closer to our clients. This is good for you because you can get your work quicker with a lower cost shipping method. It is also good for the environment as ground based shipping is more environmentally friendly than air based shipping as most ground shipping moves long distances by rail, one of the most fuel efficient manner to move freight in the US.