Since 1970, each year on April 22, the day is put aside to demonstrate support for protecting our planet’s environment. It’s called Earth Day, and it fittingly takes place at the beginning of spring when those living in seasonal climates enjoy thawing out from a long winter, and the world turns increasingly green – literally.

But Earth Day isn’t about celebrating the end of winter; it’s about saving the planet from ourselves. And its influence is not confined to the month of April. Recycling, reducing carbon footprints, and in general having a sustainability strategy is a year-round effort. It’s also become an important part of doing business. 

First, a little history: according to earthday.org, in the decades leading up to the first Earth Day, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. The industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press.

“Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health,” the organization says. “However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health. Earth Day 1970 would come to provide a voice to this emerging environmental consciousness, and putting environmental concerns on the front page.

“More than 50 years later, Earth Day has expanded and continues to spread awareness, and the focus is far beyond just air pollution. Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behavior and create global, national and local policy changes. Plus, now, the fight for a clean environment continues with increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more and more apparent every day.”

Sustainability, of course, continues to be an area of focus for companies of all industries, but particularly within the greater packaging world, where much byproduct and waste comes under scrutiny. With businesses worldwide edging toward looming environmental targets for 2025, a global population energized by the recent “COP26” UN Climate Change Conference and a consumer base calling out for change, creating more environmentally-friendly packaging is a key driver for product development. With the added pressure of increasingly stringent environmental regulations, businesses are now having to look beyond substrates and put packaging inks under the microscope in their plight to go green.

Prethink ink

The paper and board space has long enjoyed the benefits of water-based inks. While UV- and solvent-based inks have historically been used for printing on films and plastics, new developments have the industry seeing water-based inks that offer a comparable performance profile with a host of environmental benefits. The outlook for water-based inks is particularly promising for flexible packaging. Analysts are anticipating substantial growth in both substrate compatibility and the overall uptake of aqueous inks, while industry giants, such as one of the world’s leading chemical companies, BASF, are also throwing their support to water-based products.

In 2020, BASF launched the PRETHINK INK network, an alliance of organizations in the printing and packaging value chain that aims to tackle existing challenges and champion the role of water-based inks to drive more environmentally-friendly solutions in flexible packaging. With sustainability as a key pillar of its business and a strong aqueous portfolio in other print segments, ACTEGA was among the first to embrace this movement.

André Salié, project development, Digital Technologies at ACTEGA, explains, “Today, sustainability is more than a buzzword; it’s a key driver for growth in the market and core pillar for us as a business. We’ve been listening to consumer and regulatory demands and maximizing the environmental benefits of water-based inks in paper and board for some time now, but as many applications still require flexible packaging by nature, we needed to do more. With expertise in both areas, we were ideally placed to extend our range of aqueous inks for digital inkjet printing on film – and now through the PRETHINK INK network, we have the ideal community to engage with other industry stakeholders and share these benefits far and wide.”

The network partners with businesses throughout the supply chain, encouraging ink manufacturers, printers, converters, and brand owners to explore the opportunities inherent in water-based inks, from advantages regarding regulatory aspects to reductions in VOCs and carbon emissions.

“So many of the challenges and hurdles we face in the industry today can best be overcome by embracing collaboration,” continues Salié. “By bringing together businesses that are like-minded and yet have distinct areas of expertise, we can facilitate an invaluable fusion of skills, knowledge and insight that enables us to deliver the very best solutions for our clients and for the wider industry. We truly believe this is the best way to drive meaningful change and lead the industry forward, together, toward a more sustainable future.”

A digital difference

With digital print technology’s share of the printed label and packaging market set to almost double by 2026, and inkjet leading this growth, the potential for water-based digital inkjet technology is substantial. While water-based technology is making advances for sustainability, digital printing has been doing the same for customization and production timelines, bringing fast, on-demand printing and mass customization to the flexible packaging market and beyond.

Effectively, digital printing equips brands with an arsenal of tools to enable differentiation in an ever-competitive market, which, when combined with the environmental profile of water-based inks, provides a convincing impetus for change.

“While consumer demand and regulatory pressures are, of course, important, and legitimate drivers for change, it is by working collaboratively with peers and partners throughout the value chain that you are able to extract the true value of both digital and water-based technologies together,” explains Salié. “By engaging with the PRETHINK INK network and partnering with key voices in the industry, we are not only able to leverage these disruptive solutions and share them on a greater scale, but we can also share our expertise, drive the adoption of water-based inks and help realize their full potential for consumers, brands and packagers alike, resulting in critical steps forward for sustainability,” concludes Salié.


Steve Katz is the former editor of Label & Narrow Web and is now a regular contributor. He is focused on helping companies in the labels and packaging industries share their news and tell their stories. Follow him on twitter @LabelSteve.