Superior Ink | Mission to go Green | Part 2

Changes, Changes, Changes

During our process of going green, I knew one of the most important changes we were going to have to make was changing our mentality. I pulled my team together and started walking them through our future changes. It was important to me to have their buy-in. I knew this was not a one-man show and to truly convert how I wanted to, I needed all hands-on deck. Lucky for me, my team is awesome. They were so pumped and up for the change, I was kicking myself even more that I had waited this long.The changes started small. One day we started an actual recycling program. This meant that all of the cans, bottles, jars, and plastic that came through our doors had an end goal. We made sure nothing slipped between the cracks. It was a great start. We all held each other accountable, making fun of each other if someone accidentally tossed something in the wrong can, and then of course, we made them go in and get it out.

Then one day it seemed like the bigger changes just started rolling in. We started offering water-based ink and direct to garment printing. This was a huge change for us. Not only did it give more options our clients could choose from, but it also incorporated some cleaner and greener printing solutions. We even switched out all of our cleaning chemicals to natural products. We were going as chemical free as possible.We then had to think about what was leaving our building and from where. We decided to implement a filtration system into our drains and install a recirculating tank for washing the screens and squeegees. We didn’t want any of our ink going into the drains. We were making progress. We were becoming so aware of everything around us.

We started thinking about how we could improve one thing or another and realize the differences that one change could make. We soon had an internal sense of pride, we felt like we were making a change and doing good.We knew these changes had taken place when we stopped talking about them, when they just became another part of our day. I would see my team going through a checklist at the end of the day before leaving to make sure all machines and lights had been turned off without even thinking about it. I could see that these changes we had made inside of our walls had gone beyond our business and into each of our lives. I would see more bikes parked out front instead of cars, I would hear stories about how they had switched this out at home, or made this decision to become greener and I knew this year had been completely worth it. We had made the changes, and we were on our way.