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Pictura prides itself on being a sustainable print pioneer, too. It is part of the Printing Industry of Minnesota’s “Great Printer Environmental Initiative” and, last August, was the first U.S. firm to become nationally certified as a “green printer” by the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership.

Everyone Needs a Sign

Pictura Graphics is one of many similar companies across the country offering large-format print and related services for in-store retail graphics. Another sign printer with a proactive green push is the Chesapeake, Va. Signs By Tomorrow (SBT) franchise, which signed on in January with Dominion Virginia Power’s Green Energy Program. All of the energy used at the SBT office now comes from renewable energy sources. SBT—Chesapeake also is in the process of becoming certified with the EPA Green Power Partnership.

On a typical day, the owners’ dogs can be found traipsing around the production area, which features 100 percent recycled rubber tire flooring—comfortable for the five full-time employees, too—or in the store showroom with its beautiful (and sustainable) bamboo floor. The family-owned shop, which opened its doors in 2005, now boasts annual sales of nearly $500,000.

“Our sales are up over last year,” co-owner Lacy Kuller said proudly. “We are refusing to participate in the recession. Hey, everyone needs a sign, right?” she quipped. Business has been good enough to warrant an expansion in 2008, doubling the space of this SBT franchise to 4,000 square feet by moving four doors down in the same shopping center.

Kuller, who owns the SBT store with her husband, Jason, said wide-format print accounts for about 60 percent of their shop’s work. “We do a lot of business-to-business signage,” she noted, “for hospitals, property management firms and interior designers.” Typical sign printing jobs in Chesapeake include interior and exterior vinyl, perforated window vinyl, banner, and flag materials. “We stock a lot of substrates,” Kuller added, purchasing rolls from both Feller and Grimco and calling on a local supplier, Harbor Sales, for sheets. The Kuller family has owned another SBT franchise about 30 miles north, in Newport News, for 10 years.

The firm’s sustainability efforts began as part of the couple’s personal beliefs. Kuller acknowledges, however, that being green has opened doors—and market share. An HP L65500 Latex Printer added last October, which can print up to 102 inches wide, is billed on the firm’s Web site as “the latest technology in eco-friendly digital printing .... Signs By Tomorrow—Chesapeake is one of only five in the world to have this new printer!” Despite more expensive inks required for the new device, SBT refuses to pass that cost of doing green business onto its customers.

The location also houses a 64-inch HP Designjet 9000, added three years ago. While they don’t yet possess a flatbed printer, Kuller said that technology may be in the future.

Inexpensive To Get Into

Out west near Denver, Shawn Allison doesn’t have a flatbed printer either, but he’s actively shopping. “We’ve narrowed it down to three [suppliers],” said the owner and president of Think Big Solutions, a POP and trade show printer in Commerce City, Colo.