Consolidated Printing's Green Push

Since 1973, Marilyn Jones, owner of Chicago's Consolidated Printing, has been on a mission: to eliminate all toxic chemicals from her operation. "Printing is one of the top 10 most toxic businesses," says Jones. "My whole goal has been to make this a safe place for employees."

It hasn't been easy, but several notable improvements over the past three years have allowed her to claim success for her 14-person, $2 million company. To clean some printing tools, she uses reprocessed restaurant grease instead of petroleum-based solvents. Her inks are now free of heavy metals. (Most vegetable-based inks aren't metal-free.) She also bought a digital prepress system modified to work without potentially dangerous chemicals.