Focus on Sustainable Products
Achieving sustainability demands a holistic approach
In this article, Nova Abbott, head of marketing at Kavalan, explains why going PVC-free should be part of your sustainability drive in 2025.
E
verywhere you look, signage and wide format print businesses are getting involved
in all sorts of green initiatives. Some of these are more effective
than others. Sadly, too many sustainability initiatives focus on recycling our way out of trouble or simply offsetting carbon emissions. But simplistic solutions are rarely the answer to a complicated problem and when changes are made in a piecemeal way, many well-intentioned initiatives can end up amounting to little more than greenwashing. Real change entails a holistic approach
that considers every impact of a product during its life cycle, from the sourcing and manufacturing of substrates and inks through to production, installation and even end-of-life disposal. When you consider signage products in this way, it becomes clear that environmental impact reduction needs to start as early as possible in the product life cycle.
PVC banner materials To illustrate this, consider PVC banner materials. PVC is one of the most toxifying substances on the planet. It is also one of the most widely used chemicals in the signage industry, with PVC substrates ubiquitous in applications from billboards and building wraps to event banners and wall graphics. While we’ve seen many attempts to
downcycle waste PVC signage materials into other products, it doesn’t address the overall toxification a piece of PVC banner material can produce throughout its life cycle. Vinyl chloride, the gas used to make PVC, is classified as a human carcinogen, and is rendered more harmful when phthalates are added to make it flexible. If disposed of by burning, PVC gives off noxious compounds, but when sent to landfill it can instead leach these into the environment, polluting the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we
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breathe. The only way to safely dispose of PVC is not to produce or use it in the first place. Until fairly recently, it may have seemed as though negative environmental and human health impacts that result from producing, using and disposing of PVC were just the cost of doing business for the signage industry. Eco-friendly alternatives were often only greenwashed into appearing so, while some did not deliver the durability, weldability and tear resistance that sign makers need from their materials. Some options were also too expensive to consider.
Advancing technology Thankfully, the technology has advanced to the extent that numerous wide-format print businesses in the UK have now made a wholesale switch to PVC-free banner materials, making considerable environmental savings along the way. As adoption has spread and demand has grown, the cost of PVC-free materials has also become more comparable with that of PVC options. According to Kavalan’s proprietary
Eco Calculator, which draws on independently verified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data to illustrate reductions including greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater consumption, fine particulate matter formation and human health impacts, switching to PVC-free materials can result in at least a 71% reduction in human health impacts and a 64% reduction in environmental impacts. Health and environmental impacts
aside, a number of other factors are making the switch to PVC-free materials more urgent for signage businesses.
Supplier transparency Alongside performance and affordability, many customers are increasingly looking for transparency from their suppliers. With growing volumes of legislation around environmental regulation,
ever-larger numbers of businesses are obligated to both measure and report on their environmental impacts. While sustainability reporting requirements may not directly affect many signage businesses yet, such regulation will impact many of their customers, necessitating a heightened focus on supply chain sustainability. With topics such as producer responsibility and waste shipment growing in importance on corporate sustainability management agendas, it is surely just a matter of time until the focus shifts from packaging to other physical marketing assets, signage included. In addition to this, with
consumers growing increasingly wary of greenwashing and brands’ environmental impacts, marketers need to make environmentally conscious decisions, with many seeking advertising mediums that are as green as their messaging. As a result, signage and wide format print businesses that are able to provide their advertising, branding, event and retail customers with accurate data about the environmental impact of materials will have a real competitive advantage. Whether you consider it from the
perspective of sustainability regulation, as a market differentiation strategy or simply because it’s the environmentally responsible thing to do, the time has come to go PVC-free.
www.signupdate.co.uk
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