According to the company, 41% of the top 200 UK printers now have ISO 14001 compared to 24% a year earlier. Subscription to FSC is also on the increase, up 14% from last year to 26%.

However, fewer than 5% of companies in the industry can claim to have carbon neutral status, which has not changed since the work was first carried out.

GI Direct sales director Patrick Headley said the results contrast favourably to last year when it was found that too little effort was being made by the British print industry.

He said: "There has evidently been a much greater effort by the print industry in the last 12 months to obtain a level of accreditation that clearly demonstrates, through credible and independent audit, the true environmental compliance of the sector."

Despite the encouraging shift towards environmentally friendly practices, he said that many print companies remain with little or no accreditations, and the constant criticism thrown against the industry's environmental impact means that this must change.

"If the print industry in the UK were to become a majority accredited industry, then it would avoid being an easy target for lobbyists and would stand a far greater chance of being accurately represented in the environmental debate," he said.

"Despite the significant progress made over the last year, the industry needs to initiate even more effective encouragement and education of printing firms in the advantages of accreditation, both for companies individually and for the industry as a whole."

He added that once further progress has been achieved on accreditation levels, there will then be a strong case for lobbying government to introduce tax incentives for low carbon asset investment, or alternatively "low carbon print".