Sustainability

Our Vision

 

Huston Patterson will make world class choices in the print packaging industry while sustaining our environment.

 

Sustainability Defined

 

To discover and alleviate the print industry's effects on the environment.

 

To act in a manner which provides for our current needs without damaging the livelihood of future generations. Discover how Huston Patterson leads the industry in sustainability.

 

 

Huston Patterson Sustainable Initiative

 

At Huston Patterson we make new plates on every job rather than picking up old plates for re-run jobs.  By reducing the plate thickness from 15 mil to 12 mil we decreased the aluminum used by 8500 lbs and eliminated 2800 lbs of VOC’s.  Not to mention, using new plates we have reduced the number of make ready sheets and our make-ready time by 365 hours.

 

We operate an in-house sheeter and sheet individual jobs to size, reducing the amount of waste area an average of 2” per sheet.  This has reduced waste by 10% at press.

 

Huston Patterson has an in-house ink lab using partially agri-based inks.  We mix our own inks using a SPEC unit, which is an automatic ink mixer.  This has allowed us to mix the exact amount of ink needed for a job which has reduced waste ink by 4.5%.  We have also replaced our 5 lb ink cans with 8 lb ink cartridges used on press with our dynamic ink control.  This has replaced 18,000 metal cans with 11,250 corrugated containers.

 

We have replaced 800 – 55 gallon drums of coating with one single coating tank.  Once a month tanker trailers fill our coating tank.  This has eliminated the handling of 800 barrels, as well as, sending 800 barrels a year to the landfill.

 

All waste stock, aluminum plates, poly bands, plastic & wood pallets and waste inks are recycled.  We also utilize recycled stock when the application allows.

 

We just initiated a program that washes and recycles the material used to soak up oil and other related petroleum based liquids. Past practice was to remove the material as petroleum waste rather than recycle it.

 

With our award winning HPx Academy we have 35 different courses providing classroom and hands-on training to better educate our employees.  Creating a more knowledgeable staff has helped improve processes providing smoother/faster service.  Not to mention, we have a course dedicated to sustainability, sustainability 1101.  Our management team is very pro-active in reading articles and discussing sustainability with our clients and vendors as we assess our current position and prepare for the future.

 

Certifications

 

Huston Patterson is proud to be both FSC® and SFI® Certified. Certification from the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is earned by meeting strict criteria that is focused on ensuring that "products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environment, social and economic benefits. Being certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) helps to "promote sustainable forest management in North America and responsible procurement of forest products around the world."