Van Straaten Group has been nominated for the PRINTmatters Award 2026, in the Frontrunner Corporate Social Responsibility category. A nice recognition, but not a lucky break. It is the result of a course we have sharpened step by step since 2015, had independently verified, and are far from finished with.
A course that started back in 2015
This nomination is not a snapshot. It builds on choices we made more than ten years ago. In 2015 we installed the first solar panels on our roof. A year later we switched from UV print to sublimation print at five metres wide, at the time the first five-metre sublimation printer in the world, developed together with Durst. Sublimation print on technical textile is lighter than UV print on PVC, fully recyclable, and more efficient to transport.
Those choices were not a sustainability campaign at the time. They were simply better ways of producing. But they laid the foundation for everything that followed.
From individual choices to a verified system
From 2022 we started formalising that approach. One of the steps: during a dinner at FESPA, the international trade fair for the print industry, Dienstencentrum raised the question of whether we could calculate exactly how much CO2 a printed metre of textile costs. That year we carried out our baseline measurement with ClimateCalc. When we saw our actual emissions per square metre in black and white for the first time, it was a shock. That awareness simply hadn’t existed yet, but it finally gave us a benchmark.
In 2024 we took the next step: ISO 14001, the international environmental management system. What surprised us most was how organically support grew on the shop floor. That same year we also achieved ISO 9001 for quality management, which, together with the automation of work processes and customer portals, drove a major efficiency gain.
More energy-efficient production, again this year
We’re continuing that line. Since March our new sublimation printer with integrated calender has been running, combining printing and fixing in one process: higher speed, shorter lead times, and lower energy use per square metre. The second printer of this type follows this summer.
At the same time we are fully phasing out UV print, traditionally the more burdensome technique in our machine fleet, step by step. Now that we will soon also supply five-metre material for light boxes, we can move that last application area over to sublimation print as well.
What the numbers show
Between 2022 and 2025, our production grew by 93 percent. At the same time, our CO2 emissions per tonne of material produced fell by 53 percent, from 35,478 to 16,577 kilos of CO2 per tonne. In other words: every order we deliver today has roughly half the climate impact it had three years ago.
We are also making progress on circularity. Together with our supplier MehlerHeytex we developed the Textile Recycle Service. Customers hand in used textile, we sort it by material type and combine it with our own production waste for high-quality mechanical recycling. By mid-2026, more than ten major customers are already taking part in this programme.
The highest bar, and always external
ClimateCalc is one part of how we test ourselves, not the only one. Together, ISO 14001, ISO 9001, and the external climate measurement form a system in which almost every aspect of our work, from environment to quality to CO2, is independently checked.
Anyone can say they are green and sustainable and put together a nice report. But what do you measure yourself against? We measure ourselves against the highest bar. And crucially: externally. Because if you don’t do it externally, it’s just self-promotion.
Niels van Straaten
Jeroen Tamminga of Dienstencentrum guides us through the ClimateCalc certification and is one of the partners who brings that external perspective: “Van Straaten is truly an early adopter. They lead the way. And in doing so, they pave the path for the companies that follow. They say what they do, and they do what they say.”
For Van Straaten, sustainability doesn’t stop at our own front door either. Director Niels van Straaten represents the company as a member of the sustainability committee of IFES and of the Graphics working group within the Better Stands initiative, working toward a more sustainable industry beyond our own company as well.
Not our success alone
We don’t see this nomination as an individual achievement. It’s a recognition of our team, who work daily with craftsmanship on a cleaner product. Of customers who choose more consciously together with us. And of partners such as Dienstencentrum, Durst, and MehlerHeytex, who have thought and built alongside us from the start.
On 10 November we’ll find out whether Van Straaten Group can call itself Frontrunner Corporate Social Responsibility 2026. Whatever happens: this nomination already feels like a fine recognition of a course we continue to invest in with conviction, not just for ourselves, but for the entire industry.
Read the full story, with all the figures, goals and next steps, in our Sustainability Report 2024-2025.
