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Green Printing at Diablo Rapid Print
Written by Sustainable Lafayette based on an interview with Polly Bernson (drpplot@pacbell.net), the owner of Diablo Rapid Print.


Challenge
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Diablo Rapid Print has been in business in Lafayette for over 50 years! The current owner Polly Bernson has owned the business since 1993 and is a long-standing member of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. Diablo Rapid Print offers services in three areas: regular printing (brochures, business cards, etc.), architectural printing, and a new green book publishing business. Polly explained that printing has been done the same way for years and has the reputation of being a very resource-intensive business because of all the paper, printing, ink, and energy involved. But now with mounting environmental concerns, like global warming, shifting in a more green direction “is the only socially and economically responsible thing to do. The challenge is that most clients are interested in green, but most are not willing to pay for it.”


Solution Details
The good news, Polly added, is that “opportunities are rearing their head constantly, and some ideas work, and some fall on their face. I’m willing to keep experimenting to see what works. My goal is just to keep trying to improve.”

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General Printing – For their regular printing business, Diablo Rapid Print now offers printing on 100% recycled paper using vegetable/soy-based ink. This is the best choice for the environment, but costs more. Most customers are currently choosing paper with 25% recycled content. Sustainable Lafayette actually has its business cards printed at Diablo Rapid Print on 100% recycled card stock.

Architectural Printing – For the printing of architectural and engineering drawings, Polly has recently moved to printing all architectural and engineering documents on paper with 30% recycled content even though it costs more. She is so committed to this that she’s not offering the choice of “regular paper” and is absorbing the extra cost. Polly was even more excited when she pointed to a display in the front of the store (see image below). “We are the only ones anywhere, that I know of, who is offering architectural drawings on 100% recycled ‘craft paper’ which uses no chlorine.” “It looks a little different, but actually works really well, especially outdoors since it doesn’t reflect sunlight as much.”

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Green Book Publishing – Polly has recently added a new green book publishing business featuring books printed with recycled paper and vegetable/soy-based inks. She believes they are one of the first to offer this in the area. And a publishing model that is even more green than that is to provide books on tape. Polly and her team are currently setting up to pre-load books on tape to small MP3 players. Since there is no paper or ink required and the MP3 players can be re-used, it is a very green model. Stay tuned for more details!

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Energy Savings – Recently Diablo Rapid Print replaced all of its old blueprinting equipment with new digital equipment by OCE. The new equipment doesn’t use ammonia and Polly was shocked to discover that her PG&E bill went from $500-600/month down to just $100/month with the new equipment!

Another use of technology that is saving energy is to receive and deliver files over the Internet, which is reducing the need for driving and deliveries. Polly estimates that 60% of al the files she receives are now coming in over the Internet from her clients.


Informational Links

Diablo Rapid Print Web Site



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