Printing
Transportation
Printing
We control the production calculation for all fulfillers in PDQ. Our methodology is based upon a sophisticated algorithm that allows us to not only calculate the manufacturing methods that will be used by each printer for a job, but also the energy – in kilowatt hours – that will be consumed by the machinery as the job is produced. We use this data to determine the manufacturing CO2 emissions as a result, adopting the UK Government’s published energy/emissions for grid electricity to calculate the carbon impact.
It is not just the manufacturing (pre-press, printing, binding and finishing) CO2 emissions that are taken into account; the environmental cost of paper and delivery is also taken into consideration for the purposes of offsetting the total end-to-end carbon emissions.
Paper
Transportation
Printing
Paper is a carbon intensive printing consumable, typically responsible for anything between one half and one tonne of CO2 for every tonne of paper made. We take the CO2 ratings provided by the paper manufacturers and merchants for its paper product ranges and add these into our own emissions equation.
The paper sector itself is responsible for emitting c.4.7 million tonnes of CO2 annually for a production output of c.5.2 million tonnes of paper (source: Carbon Trust). This equates to average emissions of 0.9 tonnes of CO2 (and equivalents) for every tonne of paper made; the emissions being dominated by the drying element of the manufacturing process
Transportation
Transportation
Transportation
Finally, we calculate the CO2 emissions related specifically to the delivery of a job. This is based upon the type of transportation used and takes into account the job weight being hauled, the number of deliveries and the total mileage to and from the delivery destination(s).
This all goes to ensure that the calculation we use to feed our reporting to Climate Impact Partners for the purpose of offsetting our suppliers’ end-to-end CO2 emissions is as accurate as it can possibly be. It has to be. The complex manufacturing process that is print is hard enough to measure in terms of CO2 emissions, even for an individual printing company; let alone the entire supply chain, as we do with PDQ.