The Environmental Edge: Harnessing Digital Color Proofing for a More Sustainable Process

In the corporate world, sustainability isn’t a fleeting trend—it’s a vital business commitment gaining momentum daily. Reducing your environmental footprint is no longer optional, but imperative for brands worldwide.

Why should this matter to large brands? Far from mere altruism, weaving sustainability into a brand’s fabric is a strategic business move. According to Price Waterhouse Cooper data, younger consumers (17 – 38 years) are almost twice as likely to consider ESG issues when making purchasing decisions than consumers over 38 years old. Its relevance is underlined by its potential to impact a brand’s reputation, its attractiveness to investors, and ultimately, its bottom line. By carefully tracking and reporting their environmental footprint, brands can significantly enhance their appeal to a broad spectrum of stakeholders, from investors to customers, who increasingly value sustainable practices.

One way brands track their sustainability is through ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting. It’s making headlines, particularly among global brands striving for sustainability while engaging their investors effectively. In a recent Gartner’s Board of Directors Survey, 31% of respondents cited ESG strategy among their top three emerging risks. Brands like Apple, Mattel and Coca-Cola all track ESG goals, and in a WTW survey of board members and senior executives, four out of five (78%) respondents say ESG is a key contributor to organizational value or stronger financial performance. Amid these multilayered efforts, an overlooked game-changer is hiding in plain sight—digital color proofing.

Enter Remote Director, a digital color proofing solution that delivers precision and reliability. Take the environmental worries of traditional proofing processes—think ink, paper, shipping, and travel—and neatly file them away for good.

Digital Color Proofing – Smarter, Faster and Greener

Digital color proofing is primarily used by large brands, pre-press service providers, or printers that produce packaging or co

mmercial print that require color consistency and efficient time to market. It allows users to remove the time, materials and expedited shipping needed for hard-copy proofs. Remote Director, ICS’s flagship product, offers a perfect solution to align with your sustainability and footprint reduction goals. Rather than sporting a traditional, fossil fuels-heavy proofing process that involves printing and transporting documents globally, this technology helps you move towards a greener, more efficient model and saves you money in the process.

A recent case study found a multinational consumer goods company could drive out $154,800 annually from its existing expense structure using digital color contract proofs viewed on the Remote Director system in Europe and Asia. This resulted in 58% commercial savings alongside significant environmental benefits.

CO2 Emission—Rethinking Your Carbon Journey

Imagine the carbon savings when shipping numerous hard-copy print proofs around the world comes to an end. For global companies, shipping proofs between designers, printers, manufacturing locations and corporate offices are eliminated. When switching to digital color proofing, you shift from a fossil fuel-heavy process to an efficient proofing model. With a conclusive shift to digital color proofing, not only can you shave off an impressive portion of your CO2 footprint, but you also gain efficiency. The same case study shows a company reduced its go-to-market timeline by 12.5 days—an efficiency that helped them get to market faster and increase the opportunity for revenue.

Optimization of Ink and Paper—Reducing Consumption

Digital color proofing drastically reduces the consumption of ink and paper, eliminating the need to manufacture and dispose of these materials. Minimizing their use contributes significantly to a company’s environmental footprint and aligns with your ESG goals.

Business Travel—Propelling Efficient Productivity

Travel not only eats up time but also produces carbon emissions. Reports indicate that mile for mile, flying is the most damaging way to travel for the climate. Remote Director brings everyone to the same (virtual) table. From designers and printers to executives and clients, all stakeholders can inspect, review, and approve designs without hopping on a plane, making your business travel footprints lighter and greener. This can significantly decrease a company’s carbon footprint from business travel, another vital facet of a brand’s environmental performance in sustainability.

Adopting digital color proofing could help you improve your achievement of environmental goals while cementing your commitment to the environment. From curtailment of CO2 emissions to decreasing ink and paper usage to reducing business travel—digital color proofing can be one part of the future of green operations. At ICScolor, we continue to champion this advancement as color expertise transcends to color partnership—that not only defines the future of digital proofing but also pledges allegiance to our planet’s sustainability.