A/E Grpahics Continues it Push to Go Green

Who says a printing company can’t be green? A/E Graphics has been undergoing many changes in the last 18 months to make the company more eco-friendly. Most recently, the company spent $12,000 updating its Brookfield office and warehouse lighting systems.

According to Tom Taubenheim, co-owner of A/E Graphics, “As the world continues to focus more on ways to reduce energy consumption and to become more eco-friendly, we have made the consciousness decision to make our business more energy efficient.”

This time A/E Graphics partnered with Lemberg Electric Company Inc. of Brookfield to update its office and warehouse T12 lighting system to more energy efficient T8 lamps. They also changed their exit light signs to LED technology and added wall and ceiling occupancy sensors.

The company received $1800 in Focus on Energy tax incentives to put toward the project costs, and Taubenheim says that with an anticipated saving energy saving of over $2,300 annually, the project will pay for itself in approximately 4 years.

The company also just bought a cargo van for their sign deliveries and installations. The van is flex-fuel capable to run E-85 ethanol fuel as part of their fleet management sustainability initiatives.

In January 2008, A/E Graphics switched its operating standards for its digital print machines to run on totally recycled products, both large and small format. The move is a first for southeastern Wisconsin printers.

In addition, the company enacted new recycling initiatives in 2008 recycling over 7,000 cardboard cores and 14,000 plastic plus ends from production paper rolls annually.

A/E Graphics also uses eco-solvent inks rather than toxic solvent based inks for their sign and display production, and they have retired their ammonia based blueprint products.

“Our world is at a point where we all of us have to start working together to reduce, reuse and recycle what we can for the benefit of all humanity. When more eco-friendly options arise, businesses need to invest in them for the good of all” says Taubenheim.

A/E Graphics was founded in 1976. Today, the company has grown to provide a complete range of document reproduction services, signs and banners, equipment sales and document management services to the building trades, advertising and marketing agencies. It has locations in Brookfield at 4075 North 124th Street and Milwaukee at 207 E. Buffalo St., Suite 32LL. For more information on A/E Graphics, visit their website at www.aegraphics.com or call 262-781-7744.