The Sydney business this week became the 13th printer or print buyer to register with 10 Thousand Trees, an environmental program that adds surcharges of 1-2% to clients’ bills to plant trees.

Rainbow director Desiree Meoushy told ProPrint that the Wetherill Park-based company had decided to trial the free program because it would be well received by clients.

“We want to speak the language of the people and people these days are talking green,” she said.

Other firms to have joined the program include Digitalpress, Enviropress, Helios Design & Print, Kwik Kopy, Inform Print, John Sands, Posh Printing, Printworks Oz, Prografica, RM Gregory Printers, Sirius Printing and Stimulus, said 10 Thousand Trees senior consultant Rajendra Rajkumar.

Clients have to opt-out from the tree-planting surcharge, he told ProPrint.

Printers are given photos of ‘their trees’ to use for marketing and are also sent certificates to pass on to their customers, he added.

Sirius Printing owner Neilson Peng said he had been promoting his partnership with 10 Thousand Trees since registering in June.

Only 5-10% of Sirius’ customers have been rejecting the surcharge, he said.

Enviropress, which also joined in June, expects an increasing number of print shops to follow its lead, according to director Mark Kallas.

“We wanted to offer our clients an opportunity to do something for the environment and put the onus on them and if they’re fair dinkum they come to the party,” he said.

“I like the idea because everyone wants to use recycled paper and this means they don’t have to spend the earth and they still get a result.”

10 Thousand Trees works with about 50 companies in a range of industries, said Rajkumar.

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