EPSON DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTING - THE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT - A VISION OF THE FUTURE

“Striving to Sustainability Epson is declaring its intent to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs through its environmental and other CSR initiatives. The SDGs are the world’s agenda for sustainable development. There are 17 goals, such as ending poverty and hunger, ensuring peace, justice, and gender equality, and environmental and resource sustainability for future generations. All UN member states have committed to achieving these goals by 2030. Epson’s Environmental Vision 2050 is aligned with the SDGs”.

SPONSORED ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF EPSON

The growing awareness of climate change has put the issue of sustainability of technologies and processes at the top of the agenda of many companies' future goals. This is a forward-looking and necessary attitude that all parties - companies and consumers – have to promote, also to comply with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030).

The textile industry is one of the sectors in which the urgent need to find alternatives to traditional production processes has been under examination for several years. This is a difficult task if you think about the evolution of consumer habits, which has seen the permanent consecration of the great giants of fast fashion and e-commerce.

It is a socio-cultural change that has inevitably had an impact on the entire production chain, which can be summarized in three main changes:

• The need to shorten production and delivery times,

• The reduction of production batches,

• The quest for uniqueness and extreme customization of the individual garment. 

According to a report recently published by McKinsey & Company in partnership with Global Fashion Agenda (GFA), the fashion industry is responsible for about 4% of global emissions, a figure equivalent to the annual GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions of France, Germany and the UK combined. More than 70% of emissions come from the production, preparation and processing of raw materials. Therefore, reducing waste in production, before transport and distribution, could lead to savings of 24 million tonnes of GHG emissions. 

At the moment, digital printing solutions seem to be the perfect candidates to meet the sustainability requirements needed to trigger a change in the textile production chain, guaranteeing considerable energy and consumption savings. In particular, inkjet printing, which came into being to reduce the time and costs of textile sample production,  has taken on an increasingly crucial role over twenty years, not only in the design but also in the production of printed fabrics.

The countless economic, logistic and productive advantages make it attractive not only to printers but also to brands, who are increasingly interested in this technology – it’s a "revolution" in the way of designing and producing clothing and accessories. 

Finally, in terms of environmental sustainability, compared to traditional printing systems, inkjet solutions allow water and energy consumption to be reduced and require lower quantities of dyes and other chemicals used in the pre and post-treatment phases.  The factors that contribute to making digital printing processes more sustainable are multi-fold. First of all, the chemical components used in inkjet printing (inks, thickeners, detergents and other auxiliaries) are used in smaller quantities than those required by traditional processes, allowing the reduction of both emissions and consumption.
In addition, the way ink droplets are dispensed in a precise and predetermined way on fabrics allows the precise delimitation of the area to be printed, avoiding waste and dispersion of chemical components.

Digital printing technology also makes other phases necessary in analogue processes, such as the preparation of printing pulp, superfluous. This avoids the washing operations of the containers and equipment used for the production and distribution of colour, as the ink is already prepared in cartridges. Consequently, the consumption of water is also avoided.

The environmental efficiency of digital printing solutions is one of the cornerstones of Epson's philosophy, as well expressed in the Epson Group Sustainability Report to which Fig. 1 refers and where you can learn more about the advantages of digital textile printing.

Driving Production Process Innovations with Digital Textile Printers Epson’s digital textile printers faithfully reproduce prints in vivid colors and wonderful detail—and they do so with outstanding throughput and minimal environmental impact.

Streamlined Manufacturing Process Epson’s inkjet digital textile printers expand your design possibilities while minimizing your use of energy, water, materials, and time compared to conventional processes.

Digital textile printing involves the use of printing systems to print out digital data to direct to fabric. It is different from traditional analog printing in which dedicated printing plates are pressed directly onto the fabric.

Digital printing has the following characteristics:

1. Faithful reproduction of fine gradations and subtle color tones

2. Since no analog plates are needed, digital textile printing saves storage space, eliminates time spent on plate management, and enables small production runs at low cost and with fast turnaround

3. Minimize the environmental impact in comparison with analog printing • Little less of dyeing material • No need for water for plate washing.

Efficient Inventory Management:

Digital textile printing minimizes inventory losses associated with materials, partly-finished products, and finished products, from production through distribution and sale.

There is a growing market for the printing of original images on T-shirts, polo shirts, tote bags and other cotton products. We are answering the needs of this market with advanced inkjet printing technology that renders images in vivid colors and intricate, faithful detail with low environmental impacts.

Transforming the Garment Printing Workflow:

Traditional silk-screen printing requires extensive preparation, including the screen mask making and the mixing of ink, as well as maintenance. For photos and other multi-colored prints with gradations, the print process is long, and the longer the process, the more energy, water, materials, and other resources are used.

Moreover, the inkjet process saves resources and is more environmentally conscious than analog processes because there are no films, and screen masks, and no need to wash and store screens.

The impact that one company can have on the achievement of a sustainable society is limited, but Epson is looking to make an impact and make the world a better place through products and services that support customers’ sustainability efforts and through collaborative action with local communities and partners.

As a manufacturer, Epson has always asked itself what it can do to achieve a sustainable society and has worked for many years to increase the energy efficiency of its production processes and products, improve resource efficiency, and eliminate harmful and hazardous substances. To make a greater contribution, we seek to drive work process innovations by minimizing the environmental impacts incurred by our customers when using Epson products and by raising operational efficiency and productivity. Achieving this will mean taking on new challenges to offer value existing technologies cannot provide. Epson’s answer is to use our original technologies to provide products and services offer this value to our customers worldwide.

Striving to Sustainability Epson is declaring its intent to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs through its environmental and other CSR initiatives.

The SDGs are the world’s agenda for sustainable development. There are 17 goals, such as ending poverty and hunger, ensuring peace, justice, and gender equality, and environmental and resource sustainability for future generations.

All UN member states have committed to achieving these goals by 2030. Epson’s Environmental Vision 2050 is aligned with the SDGs.