Leaving Less Of A Footprint
How your small business can help save the environment.

by Shannon McRae - 07/ 25/ 2007
Reprinted from an article previoulsy written for the National Federation of Independent Business.


Reducing waste was just one idea on Peter Lineal’s 20-point plan for how to make his printing business in the Chicago suburbs more environmentally friendly. Though he had recycled soda cans at his office for 20 years, Lineal vowed to do even more when his college- aged son challenged him last year.

“My son is really involved in environmental stuff at school,” says Lineal, who started Plum Grove Printers 27 years ago. “Through conversations with him we made a deliberate decision. We said, ‘You know what? We can do more--we can do better.’”

With input from his son, who developed a summer internship around creating an extensive green-friendly program for his father’s company, Lineal started examining every aspect of his business. The exercise was a welcome one for Lineal, who says he’s always felt a nagging guilt about how he makes a living. “I was always a reader--I love the written word,” he says. “I own a printing company. It’s a great concept, but it kills trees!”

One way Lineal kills fewer trees is by purchasing recycled paper whenever possible (though he says he’ll use regular paper before sacrificing quality for his customers). Despite what many think, recycled paper isn’t a lot more expensive, he says.

In addition to using recycled paper, Plum Grove Printers also donates a portion of profits to preserve natural forests in Canada. And instead of using traditional ink, which is oil-based, the company opts for soy-based ink.

In what some might consider an unusual business move, Lineal helps his direct-mail customers cut the quantity of pieces they print. He created a Web site that allows customers to scrub their mailing lists for free, and he suggests customers use it before each mailing. “It’s a total waste of paper if 20 percent of the people on your list have moved,” he says.

Not all of the green-friendly practices on Lineal’s list are exclusive to printers. One recommendation that came from his son’s project aimed to reduce waste among the business’ 35 employees.

“We threw away all the Styrofoam in our kitchen,” he says. “We purchased some coffee cups and silverware, and we all take our turn scrubbing dishes.” Small moves like that one helped Plum Grove reduce its waste stream greatly. “We’re basically a factory, and yet we only produce the equivalent of three garbage cans a week.”

Focusing more on the environment wasn’t a big leap for Lineal, an outdoor enthusiast. “We backpack in the mountains on our vacations,” says Lineal, who has always considered himself green-minded. But when he and his son started examining practices, he saw how much he could improve. “If you just work on it a little bit, you can be a whole lot greener than you thought you were before,” he says.

Peter "the Printer" Lineal

But have all his changes brought more business? It’s hard to measure, he admits, but increasing your bottom line can’t be your sole motivation for going green. “The general reaction to our new plan is great, but it’s not why people buy from us,” Lineal says. “It does help them feel better about who we are and about doing business with us.” And by being a careful steward of the earth’s natural resources, Lineal feels like he’s leaving less of a footprint than he might otherwise as a printer. “If we do things the right way, it has very little impact on our environment,” he says. “It really doesn’t cost that much to do the right thing.”