Big Ink's Prius fleet gets Ink-wrapped

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Take four of your average Prius hybrids and stick a little color on them - what do you get? A fleet from Big Ink graphics company that is supposed to express the eco-truth that "Little Things Make a Big Difference." Does it work? Well, the Big Ink team is certainly excited to save fuel using these can't miss 'em vehicles in and around the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and Big Ink tries to get the cars into the public eye whenever possible. The graphics (get a close-up view in the gallery below) were designed by Image Haus of Minneapolis.

Behind the scenes, the company says it recycles tons of waste and paper and offers customers a Zero-Waste Recycling Program that reuses or recycles retail graphics that often have a pretty short shelf life. Not a bad idea in an industry that thrives on churning out new stuff all the time.

[Source: Big Ink]

PRESS RELEASE:

Prius Fleet Drives BIG INK's Green Business

Eagan, MN, August 26, 2008. During a brainstorming meeting the BIG INK summer intern, who drives a hybrid Toyota Prius, half joked about putting graphics on his car to launch the company's Eco-Green campaign. The idea took off and BIG INK partnered with Image Haus of Minneapolis to create green inspired vehicle graphics that would garner customer and industry attention to their green efforts. The cars feature one of four integrated designs and the simple yet powerful message of, "Little Things Make a BIG Difference." Aside from being driven around the Twin Cities, cars are being used for client visits, as well as being strategically parked at local business events and the response has been tremendous, people have taken notice.

Although the digital graphics industry is not well know for environmental initiatives, BIG INK decided to start where it could. An internal Green Team was assembled, simple changes were made and the company immediately felt the results. "Even the small changes we made had impact," notes Tom Trutna BIG INK president. "From the onset we started recycling over 2400 pounds of scrap waste each month along with 600 pounds of office paper." In order to educate the industry about the initiatives they took, Trutna wrote an article entitled Kermit Was Wrong! It Is Easy Being Green(er) that was published in Digital Graphics magazine, encouraging other printers to adopt the easy practices that make a difference.

With the internal processes in place, BIG INK started wondering how to educate clients about green options as well as how to fulfill the needs of eco-forward clients. With that in mind, they launched more environmental substrate options and a Zero-Waste recycling program to customers. "Event, trade show, even retail graphics are often used for a short time and then tossed," says Trutna, "with our Zero-Waste Recycling Program, we'll take back anything we produce and have it recycled, keeping tons of graphics out of the waste stream." Customers have taken note, the Eco-Green page of BIG INK's web site now gets four times more traffic than the other pages, bloggers are commenting on the program and customers are starting to send items back to be recycled. Notes Trutna, "the Prius fleet has proven to be a great marketing vehicle that has brought attention to our many green efforts. It drives the 'Little Things Make a BIG Difference' message, features graphics we produced, gets people thinking about being green and puts a smile on the face of everyone who sees it."

About BIG INK Display Graphics

Since 1987, BIG INK has been providing large format digital printing for corporate marketing, retail, promotions, events and tradeshow customers throughout the country. BIG INK focuses on continually developing new products and production methods to provide customers with the best solutions for their communications and marketing needs. We believe little things do make a big difference, so our Big Deal program follows your experience every step of the way. For more information contact Tom Trutna at 800-536-6503 or visit http://www.inkbig.com.