OUGD505 - Footprint Workers Co-operative

Footprint Workers Co-operative are a co-operative group of 5 printers who specialise in the printing of zines, posters, flyers, band and festival promotions, as well as a small amount of freelance work. The group was founded in the year 2000 by a group of environmental activists when they inherited the offset litho press. However, it was found that the inks being used for this process contained a lot of solvents and the use of aluminium plates was not entirely environmental and so seemed counter-productive to their ethics. This is when the group turned to riso printing, which does not require heat or cooling, and use environmentally friendly soya inks, rather than those which contain any solvents or alcohol.

Since the group is a co-operative, this means that all workers are equal, everyone gets paid equally and essentially everyone is in charge of the business. Footprint is a non-profit organisation and any which are made get put back into the upkeep of machinery to keep them running smoothly or are giving as donations to various charities which are deemed worthy. Footprint do not ship overseas in order to reduce air miles, and will refuse to print anything which goes against their ethics, for instance anything racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.