With so much paper used every day, you might not think of a printing company as being good for the environment.
Bison Printing in Bedford is out to to change your mind.
"God has given us our resources and we are supposed to take care of them, and use them but not abuse them," said Alfons Beisser, one of three co-owners of Bison Printing.
Bison prints everything from newsletters to catalogs and calendars. The whole operation is designed to be environmentally friendly.
"We have always recycled paper," said Beisser. "We also recycle aluminum from the printing plates."
The company also uses vegetable-based ink, and its replacing older light fixtures with ones that use less energy.
Recently Bison took an even bigger step, putting solar panels on its roof to supplement its electricity.
"Every day that the sun shines, it's going to generate electricity that is fed right into our building," Beisser said.
There is a cost to going green. Bison spent $180,000 installing its solar energy system, but the company expects to see an immediate savings on its monthly electric bill.
"It's going to save us 500 dollars each month on our electric bill currently," said Beisser. "If electricity continues to go up, it will obviously save us more and more."
The new system also allows Bison to give something back to Appalachian Power.
"When our plant isn't using that much power, this system will actually generate more electricity than is used, and that will be fed back into AEP's grid," Beisser said.
