RAM pushes ‘green’ envelope

EAST HAMPSTEAD — Never resting on its laurels, a cutting-edge New Hampshire printing company continues to push the sustainability bubble while also partnering with other companies to help them do so, too.

RAM Printing, an environmentally conscious company out of East Hampstead, N.H., has been following sustainable printing practices since 1989, well ahead of the curve. As “early adopters,” RAM set the standard in New England and nationally for the greening of the print industry. Before sustainable business practices were mainstream, RAM was on the cutting edge of creating a product and service that was different than anything else on the market. It felt it was important to raise the company standard and has been doing so ever since to provide the consumer
with a better product, while minimizing its footprint and succeeding financially.

What makes RAM so different? Most printing companies use oil-based inks; RAM’s are vegetable-based, virtually eliminating the toxins that traditional printing expels into the environment. Using vegetable inks does not compromise quality or diversity of color. RAM mixes its own inks on location, creating a variety of colors to meet clients’ every need. The printing plates themselves are water-based and are also recycled.

“Technology allows us to print and use color using very little paper,” says RAM account manager John Sobczak. ”All ‘make-ready’ and waste is recycled. Basically, in our plan we don’t throw anything away, including fluorescent light tubes, which are recycled, as is paper, soda cans, aluminum plates, waste paper, and corrugated boxes, and pallets. … We hardly put anything in the trash. Almost everything we dispose of has value.”

“New materials emerge as technology changes,” he says. “We continue to invest in those technologies that are environmentally friendly. In most cases, because of technology, recycling, and new products, many of the ways – but not all -- of doing business are done at a reduced costs to the consumer, which we pass on to the consumer. It’s a win-win for the customer, a win-win for RAM, and a win-win for the environment. Technology is making products less expensive and more environmentally friendly.”

He added: “It sounds weird but we save people money. We’re trying to sell less to make more.”

Cutting edge technology is also part of RAM’s sustainable successes; its newest printer can set up in 12 minutes and then proceed to print 15,000 copies per hour. This saves time and energy, which creates a more sustainable product. While RAM provides printing on paper, mugs, posters, and even t-shirts, it prints on FSC —Forest Stewardship Council — certified paper when possible.

RAM Printing was the first New Hampshire printer to receive FSC certification. The FSC sets high standards to ensure that forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible and socially beneficial manner. If a product is labeled as “FSC- ertified,” it means that the wood used in the product, and the manufacturer that made it, met the FSC’s requirements, creating a product derived from trees from a well managed forest.

A well managed forest is always on RAM’s agenda, Sobczak says, asserting that it is a “big myth” that to save trees and paper, you have to print less. “The fact is we're in a renewable business. The product we make doesn’t go into a landfill, it gets recycled. With every tree that gets cut, three to six more are planted. People can recycle all sorts of products: a brochure, a piece of direct mail, a cereal box. It’s not bad for the environment, it’s a good thing. It gets used again and again.”

Printing is on the rise, especially direct mail, a level of growth Sobczak calls “explosive.” But that doesn’t mean that RAMI is being wasteful.

“I sit down with clients and discuss how to reduce waste,” Sobczak says. “I tell them not to mail to everybody. If it’s a pizza shop we can send direct mail to everybody in town. But if it’s a company selling swimming pools, there’s no reason to send a flier to someone who’s living in an apartment. … Let’s send fliers only to people who can afford a swimming pool and only to addresses where one can be installed. By doing so, we reduce costs and more effectively reach customers. And we reduce waste. It’s not a process; it’s an attitude. Using responsible practices is a win-win.”

RAM Printing is a business partner of the Green Alliance, a union of local sustainable businesses promoting environmentally sound business practices, and a green co-op offering discounted green products and services to its members.

“Green Alliance business partners and co-op members come to RAM for their printing,” says Sobczak, noting that they get a 5 percent discount for patronizing RAM. “What’s great about them is that they appreciate us and do business with us because of our practices and our business model. It’s the GA members that walk the walk and talk the talk. And we’re happy to do business with Green Alliance members, be they businesses or consumers. And we applaud them for doing the right thing.

RAM has partnered with design studio Pixel & Pulp, a Green Alliance business partner, to use a sustainable ink formula and help institute FSC-certified processes in creating Pixel & Pulp products. RAM also partners with GA business partner Newmarket Dental, which, Sobczak says, follows sustainable practices 99 percent of the time, asking only for New Hampshire-made paper, which reduces Newmarket Dental’s carbon footprint. Sobczak calls the dentistry office “a superstar.”

RAM also partners with 20 other printers located coast-to-coast “because of our environmental processes, ethics, and the quality of our product. We’re the printer’s printer; we print for other printers. When it needs to look good, other printers come to us.”

Sobczak says that other printers should stop “pretending they’re green and start instituting green practices. Now there’s no excuse: If you can print either on paper or on anything to do with graphics, you’re doing it for less, you’re getting better quality, there’s no sacrificing. You just have to take the advantage and do the switch.”

For more information about RAM Printing, visit www.theramcompanies.com. For more information about Pixel & Pulp, visit www.pixelsandpulp.com. For more information about Newmarket Dental, visit www.newmarketdental.net. And for more information about Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz.