The Reprographics Centre, based at Old Schools, provides an ever-expanding variety of services for Estates Division staff, other divisions and departments, as well as colleges, students, private customers and small businesses. Recent work undertaken by the team included event programmes, place cards, name badges, and large photo boards for the 2024 Boat Race.
The Centre is run by Nik Palmer, who has worked in reprographics at the University for more than 20 years. The team is now busier than ever, offering a myriad of services, with a strong focus on sustainability.
Nik said, "A key priority when buying any machinery is how they recycle their parts, and what their environmental credentials are, as we are extremely conscious of our waste and our impact on the environment. We prefer to spend more money on items with genuine environmental credentials.”
The team now offers an eco-friendly alternative to lamination (laminated items can’t be recycled), with printing now possible on waterproof media in both small format using the energy-efficient Canon V1000, and in large format using a GREENGUARD Gold Certificated ink on an advanced printer made by Mimaki. Another new development which is proving extremely popular with customers is mounting on to Foamex boards, made with PVC which is 100% recyclable. All the printer paper used is Co2 neutral or carbon offset and from sustainable sources with FSC certification.
Nik said, “The standard A4 paper we use is ‘Canon Black Label Zero’, it’s produced carbon neutrally in an integrated mill where the energy used for making the paper comes from the mill's own pulp making process. All other fuels that are used are biofuels. It’s a few pennies extra per ream of paper, and a complete no-brainer. Every single exam paper we print is on carbon neutral paper.
“Through Premier Paper we have recently signed up to their well-defined carbon capture programme which is run in partnership with the Woodland Trust. For each tonne of paper bought, 100% of the Carbon Capture charges are paid to the Woodland Trust to plant new trees to offset average amount of CO2 emitted from the manufacture and distribution of a tonne of paper.
“A lot of progress has been made by our suppliers - Canon now recycle their toner bottles and machine parts for a fee and Mimaki will even pay us to return their empty ink cartridges for reuse. Packaging has also become more environmentally friendly, though there’s still room for improvement. For thicker books we have a new binder which uses a small amount of glue to bind the pages to a wraparound card cover, removing the need for plastic covers and making books easier to recycle.”
Services include books, booklets, brochures, exam papers, confidential printing, posters, flyers, banners (including new fabric banners), roll up banner stands, conference posters, postcards, business cards, signage, event programmes, place cards, name badges, stickers and large photo boards.
Nik added, “We’ll print anything for anyone if we can, we don’t like turning people away. We are also looking at extra services such as branded merchandise for things like pens and lanyards and have even started doing vinyl lettering for signage.”
For more information contact the Reprographics Centre at Reprographics.Enquiries@admin.cam.ac.uk.