What’s New: Colormaker Industries Sustainability and innovation
Boutique Australian ink manufacturer, Colormaker Industries ramps up action on sustainability and product innovation for the PERMASET range during 2025, building on its history of leadership in sustainable manufacturing.
Colormaker’s 100kW solar array on the roof of its Brookvale factory
T here is a little bit of
Australian sunshine in every drop of Permaset inks. In 2019, Colormaker Industries installed a 100kW solar array on the roof of its Brookvale factory. That produced twice as much electricity as the business used to power its production, the equivalent of 25 local homes, while saving 150 tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year. Over the past five years, that array had saved over 750 t of GHGs.
Colormaker is continuing to explore ways to reduce energy consumption, particularly sourcing from the grid. It has spent over AUD 500,000 on carbon abatement assets and infrastructure and is planning for further equipment and software that will both reduce energy consumption outright and monitor energy consumption. This is already supporting changes in workflow in real time to better align with solar output; like making more paint while the sun shines and less when it doesn’t. In 2023, Colormaker won three Environmental Awards, while its sustainability achievements featured as case studies for both FESPA Australia and an Australian ‘Big Four’ Bank. Local deliveries powered by the sun The solar installation proved so successful that Colormaker bought four electric vehicles (EVs), two for staff commutes and two for local deliveries. Over the 12 months to July 2024, that small but growing fleet covered
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Colormaker utilises four electric vehicles
51,000 km, all powered off the roof. That displaced another 11 tpa of GHGs and saved the business a further AUD 13,000 in fuel costs. “We’ve yet to crunch the numbers, but it looks like replacing petrol with solar-powered electricity via our EVs is much more effective for GHG abatement than sending surplus electricity to the grid,” Colormaker reports.
Carbon neutral by the end of 2025 Given these successes, Colormaker is actively evaluating the next steps to get to carbon neutral by the end of 2025. It notes: “We’ve been really pleased with the progress that we’ve made and how our warmly we’ve been embraced by the local community for that. Whilst we’re aware of progress in various technologies, our focus is in industry’s role getting Scope 2 emissions down as much and as quickly as possible. “Within that, our aim for Colormaker is to keep pushing the envelope, to become an exemplar for broader industry, so that other businesses can learn from what we’ve done, what has worked and what hasn’t. It’s an incredibly rewarding role, one that’s very satisfying. In this case, following our passion makes great environmental sense and yields excellent financial and social results at the same time.” Pre-Solar, Colormaker used to buy around 73 MWh p.a. of electricity from the grid, but now, that’s down to 11.4, a reduction of 85%. That 73 MWh, from
Permaset Aqua Puff Paste will relaunched next year
black coal fired electricity equated to 78 t GHGs. Now, Colormaker is a net exporter, sending net 61 MWh to the grid, displacing 65 t of GHGs worth of coal fired electricity. Adding the EV savings above, that amounts to a carbon turnaround of 154 tpa of GHGs. The Permaset water-based ink range (Permaset Aqua, Permaset Supercover, Permatone and Permaprint Premium) is supported with dedicated people in dedicated R&D. Research projects are directed towards continuous improvement in organic product, process and performance. Colormaker continues to push the envelope through the adoption of best practice in new pigments, polymers and other materials, energy sourcing and efficiency, recycling, water use and sustainable manufacturing processes to deliver the most environmentally responsible products available to the screen printing trade.
With a lot going on behind the scenes, the launch of specific initiatives will be announced over the course of 2025. In 2025, Colormaker will be relaunching Permaset Aqua Puff Paste based on new, lower heat PUFF polymer. That will save printers money in energy bills and the environment in lower resultant GHG emissions. Also in 2025, Colormaker will be relaunching the Permaset Process (CMYK) Colours range.
www.steve-wood.co.uk December 2024 | 37 |
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