Printing the magazine and protecting the environment

Now I’ve learned all about printing the Indie Shaman magazine with many thanks to everyone at Minuteman Press Bristol. It’s been fascinating watching their expertise at work and as I’m very nearly an expert now too I look forward to being able to advise June, the editor, when I get back home.

Here I am doing a post-press spot check of colours and print. All in order so on to the next stage.

When the print run is complete it’s time to collate, staple, fold and trim the edges.

All done! Just time to box the magazines. Oh, and what a great image on the front of this particular edition!

Just time for a chat with Peter about Minuteman Press’s all important environmental policy. Like Indie Shaman, Minuteman Press Bristol recognises that there is a great responsibility in printing magazines so they use only FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified paper. This means the paper is sourced from sustainable forests. A sustainable forest is one where felled trees are replaced by new trees. It will contain trees of all ages and care is also taken to ensure the safety of any wildlife there.

All the paper used by Minuteman Press Bristol is EU sourced as well as FSC certificated. Sourcing things as locally as possible helps carbon emissions – June told me that was important. Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when people (I nearly said ‘we’ then but to be honest its people that do it not hedgehogs) burn fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are used in transporting things to different places so it’s much better if you can source things locally or from as least far away as possible. In nature’s cycle carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants and trees, which is one reason sustainable forestry is so important. But the trees can’t keep up with the amount of carbon dioxide people produce which is why it’s equally important to think of the ‘carbon footprint’ of everything you do.

Peter told me that the inks they use for printing are vegetable based too. We then had an interesting talk about plastic bags because Minuteman won’t accept orders to print them and Indie Shaman don’t stock them. I don’t like plastic bags either as my cousin hedgehogs in the wild can get stuck in them when they are discarded as litter and suffocate or starve.

As a hedgehog it’s always good to know that some people care about things like the environment and plastic bags. Maybe one day all people will but possibly all people aren’t as wise as hedgehogs yet. Well we do pass down our wisdom through the generations and we are quite ancient animals having been around for about 15 million years!