Eco-boost

Climate change and sustainability are fast becoming an increasingly important debate worldwide, with packaging and the packaging industry seeming to be in particular focus.

Skymark has long taken environmental protection very seriously, both in the products it supplies and within its manufacturing processes. To enhance its sustainability credentials even further, Skymark is now promoting its capability to offer environment friendly water-based printing inks from its cooperation partner Follmann.

Skymark is an accredited recycler of PE and PP waste and provides a vast range of sustainable packaging solutions such as recyclable plastic monoweb and laminate structures and packaging films incorporating postconsumer recycled resins. Sustainable packaging solutions are not limited to the choice of packaging material. The ability to use environment friendly products is often overlooked in the choice of production materials such as ink.

Skymark therefore now offers the option of using water-based printing inks instead of solvent types for printing onto the flexible packaging the company produces. These inks are environment friendly and at the same time ensure excellent ink quality and brilliant colour.

In order to convince customers of the benefits of water based inks, we incorporated them into a promotional wet wipes pack together with Follmann, the ink manufacturer. With this product example, we can show how brilliant and high-quality the environment friendly inks are.’

said Paul Neath, operations director at Skymark

However, in addition to environmental benefits, another advantage of the water-based printing inks is their high cost efficiency. The use of solvent-type inks requires exhaust air abatement due to the growing legal requirements on VOC emissions, however, such a significant investment with its accompanying high energy use cost is not required for water-based printing inks. Moreover, water as a diluent of ink viscosity and for cleaning has no negative impact on the workplace environment in the printing plant, and the exhaust air can be discharged into the environment.

In addition, there is no need for costly fire and risk measures during printing, transport and storage. The design of the ink series as a single-component solution also contributes to high cost efficiency, making the printing inks directly processable. Fast makeready times with guaranteed colour fastness underline this reduction in expenditure. The increase in plate life and a stable printing process over a long period of time are positive factors. Plates, anilox rollers, ink supply lines, etc can all now be cleaned with water, also contributing to a more pleasant working environment in addition to other clean air benefits.

‘We are very pleased that Skymark, the UK’s leading independent manufacturer of high-quality flexible packaging materials has recognised these benefits and has taken the first step in developing its use of environment benefitting water based inks, and are confident that their customers will also recognise and utilise the advantages they offer,’

said Oliver Steinitz, head of sales printing inks at Follmann

Follmann is a family-owned company just 42 years in existence and operating in the international chemicals industry. The Follmann product range comprises a range of water-based printing inks for flexible packaging and tableware products, and low migration adhesives for the packaging industry, decorative coatings for the wallpaper and décor industries, high-performance adhesives for the wood and furniture industries, along with functional coatings and microcapsules for a wide range of other industries. Renowned for its innovative products and customised solutions, Follmann has long been recognised as a provider for speciality chemicals in Europe.

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FSC® Certified

As part of our continuing drive to provide environmentally friendly packaging solutions to our valued clients, Skymark Packaging International Ltd. are pleased to announce we have successfully undertaken an audit for the FSC®  Chain of Custody system.

 The FSC®  Chain of Custody system is designed to ensure that any paper-based products carrying the logo is grown, logged and processed in line with ethical, safety and legal compliance, meaning customers can rest assured that the product they purchase is part of a rigorous supply chain assessment that has the environment, as well as worker’s well being at the heart of everything.

 As part of our expanding offering of environmentally friendly and ethically sourced packaging material solutions, FSC®  offered the perfect fit to further strengthen our commitment to the environment and all our stakeholders.

 Each partner in the supply of FSC®  labelled product must be certified for any FSC®  claims to be made by any party.

 This significant milestone allows our clients to explore alternative packaging formats, safe in the knowledge that their entire supply chain meets the requirements for sustainable forestry and integrity of products.

 As a result of this positive Audit assessment, we are now able to provide both our traditional Flexible plastic packaging solutions, as well paper-based packaging formats to a growing audience of environmentally conscious end-users.

 Sitting alongside our recycle-ready SKYMONO PE laminate offerings, as well as our well-established plastic packaging offerings containing minimum 30% recycled content materials, our new printed SKYPAPR offerings offer the opportunity for consumers to easily recycle materials from the comfort of their home, causing minimal disruptions all the while providing the peace of mind that the material choices they make ensure the best possible option for sustainability.

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Keeping cool

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Skymark Packaging has long held a desire to conserve our environment. We produce innovative packaging solutions, efficiency projects and next level working methods. Whenever we explore a possibility to improve, we endeavour to involve our work force or (wherever possible) local companies that share the same philosophy as Skymark, reducing unnecessary carbon emissions associated with travel and logistics. Our Free cooling project is another fine example of our philosophy.  

Together with our project partners at ICS Cool Energy, Skymark have delivered a milestone project which has seen us using nature to help us reduce our costs.

Our partners at ICS Cool Energy have managed to provide an in-line cooling solution to ensure that our objective has been met:

“Reduce our energy use for water cooling purposes by at least 200,000kWh/annum”

Systems like these always rely on external factors to be successful. Thankfully, the weather in North Lincolnshire is favourable to us in our attempts to make the most of this development.

We are delighted to report that we have successfully achieved our objectives by using the typically moderate Lincolnshire climate to help us cool our water system whilst saving in excess of 200,000kWh per annum of electricity in the process.

The project ensures that we do not only reduce our like-for-like annual electricity consumption and associated Carbon emissions, but we have also reduced one of our key operational costs.  Process cold water has been reduced from being the 2nd most expensive consumer in 2017 to not even featuring within the Top 5 in 2019. What an absolutely amazing result.

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Carbon Trust Briefing

At Skymark, we are aware of our impact on the wider environment. This is why we have dedicated significant amounts of time and resource to ensure our Products have the least possible impact. Now we have taken further steps.

Shaine Gill-Ohrt, Skymark’s Corporate Compliance & Accreditation Manager, attended the Carbon Trust Briefing on the UK Government’s “Net Zero and the 1.5 degree challenge” on 14th January 2020 at the House of Commons in London to hear first-hand how Industry, Finance, Politics and the wider population are planning to play their part in what will be the greatest challenge facing society today.

Skymark Packaging have already made significant strides in conserving natural resources and reducing harmful emissions to atmosphere. We have completed a number of efficiency projects, such as more efficient lighting systems and cutting edge cooling technologies (see our links below), which have seen a reduction in Energy consumption of over 300,000kWh per annum, as well as using recycled materials within our products (so far as is legally permitted) to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Our on-site Recycling facilities have diverted more than 800t of plastics which otherwise may have ended up in landfill and turned them in to valuable raw materials for a raft of new applications. Our close working relationship with our Pallet and Material suppliers has resulted in Skymark being awarded the PRS Green Label Award.

Our efforts on all fronts have been recognised by many different groups and stakeholders alike. Earlier this year, we featured at Barbour Index’s very successful Webinar on “Environmental Legislation 2020 and how to comply from a business perspective”

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Combat CO2

Skymark Packaging is a business which due to the nature of its Products consumes large quantities of natural resources and therefore has a sizable Carbon Footprint. As an environmentally conscious organisation, we cannot sit back and consider this level to be acceptable.

We have therefore launched two key energy reduction projects in 2018, with further developments planned in 2019 & 2020. Our current projects have seen us reduce our power consumption by Over 660,000kWh per annum – Enough to power 23 medium-sized UK Houses. We have achieved this feat by employing two main Technologies:

  • British made and designed high efficiency LED lighting systems
  • Free cooling systems for our chilled water requirements

We continue to explore efficient and beneficial technologies to further cement our position as a leader of innovation, not only for the

Products we supply but also the way in which we interact with our Environment. 

To underline our environmental commitment, we subscribe to the International standard ISO 14001:2015, as well as associated environmental compliance obligations. We regularly undergo external audits to ensure we keep our impacts as controlled as possible and strive to be at the forefront of regulatory changes and developments. We achieve this feat together with our partners at BSI and Barbour Index.

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