Sustainability

Walch Education takes seriously its role as an environmentally responsible company. We always look for cost-effective ways to identify and implement processes that emphasize environmental sustainability. Following are some of the areas where Walch Education has made decisions that improve our environmental footprint.

Printing and Production

• Digital printing, rather than offset, allows us to print exactly as many copies as we need, thereby reducing unnecessary overages and wasted paper.
• Digital printing also eliminates the wastewater by-products, volatile chemicals, and air pollutants associated with offset printing. Unlike offset printers, we have no plates, film, oil, or waste sludge to recycle.
• Approximately 90% of our text paper comes from sustainably managed and harvested eucalyptus plantations (Eucalyptus globulus), which have a high yield per acre, are highly efficient in water usage, and produce a high-quality fiber ideal for fine paper production.
• We recycle both paper and corrugated cardboard.
• We use captured heat from certain machinery in our printing plant to heat the entire printing facility.

Warehouse and Shipping

• We reuse the cartons in which books are stacked on our warehouse shelves, typically using the same box 5-6 times.
• We deploy motion detectors to turn on lights only when necessary.

Corporate Offices

• We are transitioning from a paper-catalog-intensive operation into one that relies more on our web site. From an annual print run of 1.3 million catalogs (140 tons of paper), we now produce 150,000 catalogs (16 tons). Using the latest numbers published by Conservatree, at 7.68 trees required to produce each ton of catalog-quality paper, we've reduced our demand by about 952 trees each year.
• We recycle paper in our mailroom and at our copier machines.
• We recycle bottles and cans and donate the money to local charities.
• We recycle used computers, printer cartridges, and utilized used backup tapes.
• We use water that has been purified for our printing operation humidification as drinking water in our break room, thereby eliminating the need to purchase bottled drinking water.
• We use setback thermostats throughout our offices, saving on heating and cooling costs throughout a 7-day cycle.

Walch Education materials are printed in the U.S.