Committed to Green Digital Printing

Merry Trucksis is determined to educate the business world about eco-friendly methods of production. Her company, Trucksis Flag & Banner in Monterey, California, went “green” before it became fashionable, and her business is flourishing in today’s environmentally conscious marketplace.

Truckis Flag & Banner is a division of Trucksis Enterprises Incorporated, which was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1981 by Trucksis’ father as a textiles brokerage firm. When he passed away unexpectedly, Trucksis took over the business. In the late 1980s, she moved the firm to Salt Lake City and began producing flags and banners for local ski resorts.

“Roland DG has always been committed to environmentally friendly production,” said Trucksis.  “Their ECO-SOL MAX inks provide excellent color with minimal environmental impact.”

In search of new markets, Trucksis soon headed west to Monterey, which she says is “the most beautiful place I have ever seen.” Preserving that beauty became her passion. Now her shop provides a broad range of environmentally friendly sign and graphic solutions to clients ranging from the local police department to large-scale premier events such as the Pebble Beach U.S. Open and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

As part of her pledge to protect the natural beauty around her, Trucksis has chosen to purchase her equipment exclusively from manufacturers with a demonstrated commitment to the environment. Her shop is anchored by two Roland DG SOLJETs PRO III 54” digital printer/cutters, including the newest version, the SOLJET PRO III XC-540MT, which features metallic silver ink.

Every Roland DG product is designed and manufactured through sustainable processes that meet ISO 14021 standards, and many of the company’s products are Energy Star compliant. “Roland DG has always been committed to environmentally friendly production,” said Trucksis. “Their ECO-SOL MAX inks provide excellent color with minimal environmental impact.”

Trucksis uses Roland DG’s ECO-SOL MAX inks to ensure outstanding color while maintaining durability, longevity and color retention. The XC-540MT offers metallic silver ink that can be printed as a spot color or combined with CMYK inks to produce a range of colored metallic effects including gold, silver, bronze and other pearlescent colors. “Our clients are really excited about the metallic colors,” said Trucksis. “Over a dozen restaurant and winery owners have come into our showroom in the last two weeks and ordered labels for private events.”

To complete the lifecycle of its ink cartridges, Roland DG recently established an ink cartridge recycling program for its inkjet customers. Customers can now download shipping labels from Roland DG’s website (www.rolanddga.com/recycle) and send their cartridges directly to Roland DG’s headquarters in Irvine, California.

Trucksis Flag & Banner is among a small group of businesses that is certified by the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program, which has opened doors for her firm statewide. To be certified by the Green Business Program, business owners must go above and beyond regulatory requirements to prevent pollution and conserve resources.

“Our goal has been to educate our customers so they know it’s not just what you buy, it’s what you throw away,” said Trucksis. One of Trucksis’ recycling strategies is to reuse the signs they produce each year for local festivals. Trucksis offers to store the signs and then runs the next year’s signs on the reverse side. “We buy WhiteCap™ from Coraplast which is 35% recycled, and we use an eco-friendly adhesive overlay,” said Trucksis. “If we can reduce what’s thrown away, we conserve resources.”

Because Trucksis Flag & Banner clients include many local festivals and seasonal events, their staff grows from a core of four to eight during the summer months. “We have events every weekend and it’s all adrenaline!” said Trucksis. “The SOLJETs are running 20 or more hours a day, every day.”

Trucksis produces signage for the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, the centerpiece of the Pebble Beach Automotive Weekend and one of the largest North American gatherings of classic cars. In 2009, Trucksis’ shop produced signage and flags for nine different venues in Pebble Beach alone, including sector banners measuring 8’ x 18” for seven categories in seven different colors, along with flutter flags and a series of mesh banners that were hung overhead every half mile around all of Pebble Beach.

Within the Concours, Trucksis also produced signage for the Motorama exhibit by General Motors. It took all eight staff members working a 15 hour day to generate the signs for each car, as well as printed tablecloths, banners at the retail tent, the ticket entry signs for seven tents, welcoming and directional signs, flags for the winner’s circle and flags running along the pathways from the 18th tee to the 18th fairway on the famous Pebble Beach golf course.

To create their designs, Trucksis and her graphics specialist, Mae Odom, begin in Adobe Illustrator, then use Roland DG’s VersaWorks RIP software to print the graphics. Trucksis has found good sources for environmentally friendly adhesives, and uses them for everything from vehicle wraps to decals and the return labels they use on their office mail. In addition to the standard substrates, Trucksis has run a variety of innovative recycled fabrics and even carpeting through her SOLJETs. “The SOLJET is one tough machine,” laughed Trucksis. “With the demands we place on our equipment, we needed something Tool Time Taylor-proof, and that’s what we got!”

Trucksis credits her success to her people, her equipment, and her training. “The second best decision I made besides purchasing Roland DG equipment was to visit Roland DGA in Irvine, California. Being introduced to the wide variety of Roland DG product capabilities together with knowledgeable, experienced production and technical staff to answer my questions, opened up even more doors,” said Trucksis. “I left knowing I was going to purchase yet another Roland DG product: the Roland DG EGX engraver.”

When she’s not working overtime in her own shop, Trucksis speaks at local forums and business events, discussing her commitment to using her purchasing power to preserve the environment. “Everyone has a choice,” said Trucksis. “I choose Roland DG because they are an environmentally responsible manufacturer with top-quality performance.”