As awareness of climate change increases steadily amongst the general public, the environmental question is one that businesses can no longer afford to ignore. It’s estimated that producing one tonne of paper accounts for 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
While it is impossible to reduce impact entirely, modern technological advancements now offer businesses solutions for energy conservation, especially when it comes to marketing. Find out more below.
Print or Digital?
Putting it simply, companies today have a choice between two forms of display-based advertising: print or digital.
Now, print may seem like the more renewable option compared, but there are many factors to consider. While paper is renewable, the printing process is not, as it uses many different, often toxic, chemicals to create a run of posters.
Additionally, posters are single-use. Higher quality ones may last for a decent length of time, but will eventually need replacing. Then, there is the matter of shipping to consider. We also have to factor in mistakes; ordering a new run of posters for advertising your business, only to discover a typo when they arrive is frustrating, time-consuming and expensive. As such, a run of posters may seem like the more environmental option on the surface but carries additional costs.
It’s not only in advertising that digital signage can help reduce waste. As seen in a previous Spectra blog post, displays can offer easily updatable information to staff, thus reducing the need for equivalent posters and more traditional signage.
Environmental and Adaptable
Despite using non-renewable materials in its construction, digital signage is still an energy-efficient alternative to print.
Technology has progressed to the point that modern displays are incredibly energy-efficient, some using up to 90% less energy than they would have done twenty years ago.
New digital LED displays have a long lifespan and can adapt to a room’s light levels so that they are always displaying effectively. Spectra not only offers this state of the art adaptability, but one of the sectors they provide for is Environmental Monitoring. These displays measure both temperature and humidity and in general improve process efficiency by minimising energy usage.
In fact, the use of LED lights and other energy-efficient materials has been definitively shown to reduce our carbon footprint. Last year the BBC reported that industries implementing energy-efficient methods has contributed to cutting energy demand by 103 terawatt-hours between 2005 and now.
Simon Evans from Carbon Brief is quoted in the report as saying, “It’s clear that energy efficiency has played a huge role in helping the UK to decarbonise – and I don’t think it’s got the recognition it should have.”
Spectra’s Environmental Dedication
Many companies are pledging to do more than the minimum for reducing their carbon footprint, and Spectra Displays can help meet those targets. They recognise that they have a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements. Their environmental performance is under regular review so that innovation in this respect can be achieved continuously.
While it is hard as a business in the modern world to balance costs with innovation, it is clear that investing money into energy efficiency is a strategy that pays back over time.
Spectra encourages customers and other stakeholders to take environmental concerns into account when considering their digital signage needs.
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