Since 2007 Pureprint has purchased nearly 30,000 tonnes of carbon offsets, equivalent to the carbon from 105 million economy flight miles or almost 86 million car miles.
The new initiative coincides with the 25th anniversary of the company becoming the first UK printer to notch up ISO 14001 certification.
Director Richard Owers said: “The initiative has been running only a few weeks but feedback has been strong. We are seeing increasing interest among customers on reducing their carbon footprints.
“We hope this inspires more debate on carbon offsetting. Carbon Balanced Paper customers can produce printed work with very low net carbon emissions.
“Whatever size we are as a company, we can only do so much. But if we can inspire our customers to become involved, the overall impact will be much bigger.”
Government targets have now been set to reduce UK carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 against 1990 baseline and further impetus comes from high-profile TV shows such as Blue Planet.
Owers added that Carbon Balanced Paper was an easy way for its customers to reduce the carbon impacts of their printed communications. Pureprint has been CarbonNeutral for over 15 years.
Balancing is delivered by World Land Trust, an international conservation charity that offsets carbon emissions through the purchase and preservation of high conservation value land.
Through protecting standing forests, under threat of clearance, carbon is locked in that would otherwise be released.
These protected forests are then able to continue absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, referred to as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD).
Sir David Attenborough is patron of the World Land Trust and Pureprint clients can now use the trust's Carbon Balanced Paper logo on their printed communications.
CarbonCO is the environmental consultancy that manages the initiative for the print and paper industry.
Since its launch in 2013 more than 2,000 organisations in the UK have now used Carbon Balanced Paper, balancing more than 160,000 tonnes of CO2e and protecting 14,500 acres of threatened habitat with World Land Trust. This is the equivalent to balancing the annual emissions of more than 41,000 cars.
Pureprint Group has more than 400 people and a turnover in excess of £58m, producing corporate, retail, creative and fine art printing. Its kit includes four Heidelberg Speedmaster XLs and six HP Indigos.
In April the PrintWeek Awards multiple winner became the first UK company to add high-definition heads to an existing HP Indigo 12000 digital press.
