Practicing Sustainability in the Wide-Format Segment

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 a

bout incremental, continuous improvement. It’s more about the journey than a destination.”

ara Osorio, Environmental, Health, and Safety Affairs coordinator at PRINTING United Alliance

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.

Osario 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, Osario 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.”

Beginning and Maintaining a Sustainability Journey

One of the biggest barriers to sustainability initiatives is the incorrect perception that companies must immediately achieve ambitious goals such as carbon neutrality. Osorio cautions against that approach. “Net zero and carbon neutrality are important goals,” she says, “but they are very long-term and require comprehensive programs and investment.”

Instead, Osario encourages wide-format companies to begin with manageable goals that can deliver real benefits today. These “low-hanging fruit” efforts might include, for example, tracking energy or water usage, waste reduction through better estimating and job planning, or considering energy efficiency when replacing equipment. “It’s like building healthy habits,” Osorio says. “You start small, and once that habit sticks, then you add another one.” This incremental approach helps correct another common misconception, that sustainability is always expensive. “Sustainability done wrong can be costly,” she acknowledges. “But when it’s implemented strategically, it often leads to cost savings.”

Waste reduction lowers disposal costs and material purchases, Osorio says, and activities like tracking utilities can reveal inefficiencies, or even billing errors. She shares the example of a company that, by monitoring its water usage, was able to identify a billing mistake, which resulted in significant savings.

Another misconception Osorio frequently encounters is that customers of wide-format PSPs no longer care about sustainability. “That’s a really big assumption to make,” she says. “Brands may talk about it less publicly, but sustainability is still very much part of their decision-making.” She says many companies have become more cautious about making large public commitments after high-profile sustainability pledges proved difficult to achieve.

Will Sustainability Be Mandated?

Outside of sustainability pledges, regulatory changes are increasing pressure on companies to better manage materials and waste. One example is extended producer responsibility (EPR), which requires producers to take responsibility for the end-of-life management of the products they make. EPR programs, she says, already exist for items such as paint, mattresses, and batteries, and similar regulations are emerging for packaging and textiles. “I think EPR is here to stay,” Osorio says.

And while EPR programs affecting wide-format shops may be years away, printers can prepare by mapping their material flows, thus understanding which materials enter their facilities, which products leave, and the waste streams they generate.

On top of this, she says building relationships with recyclers, and tracking substrate types and volumes can help businesses adapt more easily if and when regulations expand.

But Osorio says that in the absence of regulatory pressure, many companies are discovering sustainability can strengthen their businesses in other ways. Brands, she says, increasingly want suppliers that align with their environmental values, and employees often prefer to work for organizations they believe are making a positive impact. “Sustainability is important to a lot of people entering the workforce,” she says. “And working for a company that takes it seriously can help with employee retention.”

Ultimately, she says, companies that succeed in sustainability are those that make it a part of their overall culture rather than treating it as a marketing initiative. She adds that successful programs tend to share several characteristics:

• • Leadership commitment
• • Clear measurement
• • Transparency
• • Alignment with operational efficiency
• • Close collaboration with clients

Osorio notes that wide-format companies navigating customer expectations, regulatory shifts, and technological changes may find the path to sustainability is not simple. But, she says, by focusing on incremental progress, measurable results, and thoughtful collaboration, they can continue moving in the right direction.