Hahnemühle Bamboo 290gsm
Our favourite warmtone fine art paper - with rich & velvety tones. It's also highly eco-friendly making it pretty much perfect in our book!
Image Science & The Environment
At Image Science, we try and reduce our impact on the environment wherever possible.
Natural Fibre Papers
We were the first company in Australia to offer printing on a range of Hahnemühle's Green range of papers - Bamboo and Hemp - both of which are significantly more environmentally friendly than traditional cotton based papers (and vastly more so than 'resin' (i.e. plastic) coated papers). The materials used to make these papers require vastly less clear land, water or pesticides to produce than cotton.
We always encourage our clients to try these exquisite papers - archival and ecologically friendly, they are truly a wonderful new option.
Even the cotton papers we use are made from cotton linters, which is a waste material from the textile industry. Therefore, no cotton is grown specifically for the purpose of paper making.
Even though it is renewable, and cotton rag papers are a by-product of other manufacture, cotton is a very resource heavy crop. The fact remains that if you can use a fibre other than cotton - you really should!
Colour Management
Colour management has been used at Image Science right since we began in 2001. We've had colour management in place longer than any other print service in Australia, and it is literally at the core of our entire approach. (Many labs still weren't using colour management more than a decade after we started, and those that were very often learnt it from us!).
One not often recognised benefit of pervasive colour management in an imaging workflow is a vast reduction in waste generally - very little test printing is required by us, or our clients, to achieve perfect results. This tremendously reduces waste in paper and ink - both of which require significant resources to manufacture.
Put simply - printing well means using less. And we've been printing well longer than anybody. It's at the heart of who we are.
Re-Use, Reduce, Recyle
We of course also recycle all waste ink and paper cut-offs, and do so using properly audited services.
We re-use whatever we can - this includes ink/toner cartridges in printers where colour is not critical, such as our general office printer. We also re-use packing materials from incoming deliveries for outgoing orders wherever possible. This massively reduces our need for newly manufactured materials.
Before the collapse of REDcycle, all excess or non re-usable soft plastics, including old, un-reusable bubble wrap, were recycled weekly - we sincerely hope to see some action in this area soon so we can continue this practise.
Cartridge Drop Off Point
Image Science is also an ink and toner cartridge recycling drop off site - so you can bring in your used ink cartridges and we can pass them on to the right people for recycling.
Note there are some conditions:
- This is a manufacturer sponsored program, so we can only accept Epson, Canon, HP and Brother ink/toner cartridges and print drums.
- We can't accept anything actively leeching ink - please give them a rinse and dry if there is any leakage, and ideally re-attach the caps they often come with
- We can only accept up to 20 cartridges at a time. If you're producing more than this, contact Close The Loop directly to arrange your own collection box and free pick-ups.
- Cartridges only, please - no packing materials or other plastic waste.
Our Working Environment
Environmental considerations are at the heart of our carefully chosen office space.
We minimise our use of cooling and heating largely through having carefully selected an architecturally designed office space built with temperature control in mind. We have natural ventilation and an inner atrium full of plants and fish.
We have always used certified green and renewable power companies to provide all our utilities - it's worth the extra cost.
We select our hardware with the environment in mind as well. We favour Eizo monitors, both for their amazing colour quality and their product longevity, but also because they are unmatched in the industry in terms of environmental credentials and attitude to sustainability. Epson recently became the only print vendor to use 100% renewable energy and are taking significant steps towards greater sustainability. With other tools, we always try to take a 'buy it once, but it right' approach - e.g. using Rotatrim trimmers, which last a lifetime.
No replacement means no new resources needed!
Hahnemühle Hemp 290gsm
A smooth, lightly textured environmentally friendly fine art paper created from sustainable hemp fibres.
Hahnemühle Agave 290gsm
This sustainable, eco-friendly paper is made from Agave fibres, with a wonderfully warm tone and balanced surface texture.