Our Pledge to Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is one of the most significant issues impacting humanity.  It’s a complex problem, that encompasses many moving parts.  Sustainable procurement of materials, waste and emissions reductions, recycling initiatives, and more all need to be considered carefully.

Sustaining the environment is not something that one organization or one person alone can control.  However, at ANRO, we believe we can all make smarter choices to do our part to make the existing situation better.  As such, we’ve compiled the list of the things we’re doing to offset our environmental impact and promote sustainability.

1. Partner with like-minded Suppliers

As a commercial printer, we source large volumes of materials daily; paper, packaging, aluminum (for press plates), inks, etc.  It’s important that our suppliers’ values align with our own to protect the environment.

For example, at ANRO, we house a fleet of HP digital presses to enable our production.  HP is recognized as one of the world’s most sustainable companies.  They have many corporate goals supporting waste reduction, responsible sourcing, net zero carbon futures, and protecting and restoring global forests as published in their Annual Sustainable Impact Report, in June 2020. (Source: https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c07539064 ).

Another example is Veritiv.  We purchase many of our paper and packaging materials through this supplier because of their dedication to products that minimize harmful impacts to our planet. They actively seek solutions throughout the entire life cycle of their materials to responsibly source, reduce waste, and reuse, as discussed in the 2020 Veritiv Corporate Social Responsibility Report.  (Source: https://s2.q4cdn.com/507213534/files/doc_financials/2020/Veritiv_CSRR.pdf)

Partnering with responsible suppliers is something we value.

2. Support Sustainable Certification Agencies

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is arguably the most well-known sustainable forest management organization in the United States. We’re proud members of their globally recognized certification, which allows us to use their sustainably sourced materials and best practices for chain-of-custody certification.  It also allows us to promote the FSC label on our customers’ printed products.  When you see the FSC label, you can rest assured that you’re helping to maintain the health of the world’s forests and the ecosystem they’re a part of.  We promote the use of FSC materials and products that contain post-consumer waste and/or recycled fibers.

3. Recycle

At ANRO we believe our actions make a difference. When you walk around our facility, you’ll see many opportunities to recycle materials.  Not only those that we use in production, but materials all the way down to the plastic soda bottle you bought at the convenience store for lunch.  In 2021, we recycled over 1.2 tons of 10 different materials including aluminum, paper, ink, packaging, plastic, and more.

4. Offset your Paper Footprint

For every job that’s printed at ANRO, we plant trees to offset 100% of the paper used.  How does this work?  We’ve become a certified PrintReleaf partner which allows us to automatically convert the paper footprint of our client’s printed projects into actual trees.  Using a proven algorithm, we calculate how many trees each job we print used, taking into consideration the paper weight and sizes.  That number of trees is then certifiably reforested into forests worldwide, with a certified 100% net survival rate over an ongoing 8 year audit cycle through SGS International, the third party certifying body.

5. Operation Efficiencies & Sustainable Materials

We already mentioned that we promote the use of recycled and FSC certified papers. More than that, we try to incorporate energy efficiencies throughout our building regularly.  ANRO use environmentally friendly inks, that are vegetable based and have a very low VOC content (less than 2%).  Recently, we’ve installed new LED lighting systems throughout our building, reducing power consumption and heat output.  Our new HVAC systems are equipped with energy recovery units, and an automation system to adjust air quality automatically.  While we haven’t yet achieved a net neutral carbon emissions footprint, we aspire to move in that direction soon.

As responsible corporate stewards, we have a responsibility to act in the best interest of our environment and do everything we can to minimize our negative impacts.  It matters to us now, and it matters to the generations that are to come.  We will remain fully committed to sustainable practices and will continue to make improvements to our operations and facilities to further support environmentally friendly actions.