Your Green Review

A note from YGR:

Starr Studios first caught YGR’s attention last month after completing our Green Profile Builder (under the ‘Get Listed’ tab) and is a shining example of how small business can leverage sustainability to unleash creativity, develop strong community relationships, create visibility and differentiate itself from the competition.  We are proud to highlight Starr Studios this month in our Green Company Profile!

Company Name: Starr Studios

Company Type: Privately Owned

URL/Location: www.StarrStudios.org

Company Description:

We use only sustainable practices in our sign making while maintaining the highest standards of quality craftsmanship.  We use low VOC paints that exceed the rigorous upcoming CALGreen regulations and offer a variety of sustainable sign substrates including no-formaldehyde wood composite panels as well as bamboo panels, traditional play-woods and a variety of reclaimed wooden planks and windows.

We work hard to minimize waste at each stage of our process and recycle where possible thus creating a fraction of the waste that other sign shops produce.  We are family owned and operated, bonded and insured and have been making custom sins for over 20 years.  We ship our custom signs to our customers all over the United States from our studio located in beautiful Bear Lake, California.

Sustainable Business Practices:

• The majority of our work is hand painted signs on wood using sustainable panels and low VOC paints
• Our workshop runs on solar power supplied by multiple panels on our roof
• We live and work on the same property = zero commuting
• All cardboard from supplies we have shipped is reused as packaging materials for the signs we ship to our customers
• We mix our paints in containers salvaged from our kitchen
• We recycle all qualifying material used at our shop
• We purchase the majority of our materials from nearby Orange and Los Angeles Counties, and make all other material orders within a 500 mile radius
• We buy in bulk when possible

Future Sustaianbility Goals and Strategies:

• We are working to eliminate all PVC vinyl and plastic products from our services by January 1, 2011
• We plan to convert our gasoline powered shop truck to cleaner burning propane by 2012
• All future marketing materials will either be printed on recycled paper wit soy inks or converted to digital media

Description of ‘Green’ products used:

Paints:  We use low VOC, ultra low VOC and no VOC paints.

Wood Products:  We use Forest Stewardship Council Certified wood products as well as 100% Recycled Reclaimed Lumber in the manufacture of our signs.

Media Coverage:

Our work has been featured on the Discovery Channel, NBC Television, The Food Network, the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2009 International Tour of the band Gogol Bordello, as well as industry publications such as Digital Output Magazine and This Old House.

Memberships:

US Green Building Council (USGBC) Chapter Member (Inland Empire)

Creative Sign Makers of America

A Message from Starr Studios:

We realize that in the grand scheme of things, the contributions of one micro-sized sign shop adds up to very little, but we hope to inspire other shops to make the move away from petroleum based vinyls and plastics and to push their creative limits to make better looking signs while using sustainable processes.