environmental sustainability will require the print and signage industries to look beyond incremental improvements and start addressing impact at the source. She concludes: “If we want to make meaningful progress, the industry needs to place far greater emphasis on material selection and understanding the full lifecycle impact of the products being used.” Sustainable from the Start To best understand how sustainability can impact a business, it is worth looking at businesses that were shaped by these practices from the beginning as a core part of their identity. One company that fits the bill is Teemill, a UK-based, tech-driven printon-demand (POD) platform that operates a fully circular open-access supply chain. Teemill was never conceived as a traditional commercial print business that decided to ‘go green’ later on. Instead, it was born entirely out of frustration with global manufacturing waste, and that focus has shaped its future successes. As Sára Debreceni, content marketing manager for Teemill, outlines: “Building the supply chain behind our products ourselves gave us the power to make decisions on small details that make a big difference. organic materials and renewable energy. All of its products are designed to return to the company when they’re worn out, to be remade into new products. This system, which they have dubbed Remill, has so far recovered over 100,000kg of material. As Debreceni comments: “Our long-term strategy is to create a world without waste, and our platform helps to displace clothing made from fossil fuels as part of a takemake-waste economy, with sustainable alternatives designed for circularity.” Linking this to financial savings and business ▲Teemill operates a fully circular supply chain, with its products designed to return and be remade into new products 89 Issue 362 - September | October 2026 BEING A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS | JONATHAN PERT “Using organic cotton rather than conventionally farmed cotton can reduce water usage by up to 91%. Using renewable energy enables you to employ processes that might be more energy-intensive. Introducing automation into your fulfilment system means more efficiency and big savings. But the biggest thing is waste – if you hunt waste within your operations, you will become more sustainable and save money.” Teemill’s mission is to help brands end waste through POD production, using If we want to make meaningful progress, the industry needs to place far greater emphasis on material selection and understanding the full lifecycle impact of the products being used www.printmonthly.co.uk
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