Natural Line - Hahnemuehle

FineArt Media >> Natural Line

The Natural Line has a special place in the Hahnemühle Digital FineArt Collection. It focuses on FineArt inkjet papers made from unique raw materials: bamboo, hemp and agave. The plants that provide the cellulose require minimal maintenance, grow quickly and don’t need any pesticides. Their rapid growth means that more cellulose can be produced on the same cropland than with other raw materials, and they also require much less water, helping to save valuable resources and protect the environment.

The new FineArt inkjet papers from the Natural Line are the next step in our continuous pursuit of sustainability and careful use of our resources.

The Natural Line complements the Digital FineArt Collection with special fine art inkjet papers made from unique raw materials and supports under the Green Rooster initiative environmental projects on regional and international level.

>Read the review on Fstoppers by Mark Dunsmuir: Reducing the Environmental Impact of Your Photography: Hahnemühle’s Green Papers

The water we use to produce our high-quality FineArt papers comes straight from the source and is set apart by its particularly high level of purity, meaning it doesn’t need to be chemically treated at all. Even at the end of the production cycle, the wastewater has not been contaminated with pollutants and is returned to the river as high-quality water.

Cotton is one of our main raw materials to produce fine art papers. We don’t use the whole plant – only the by-product of a by-product! We use linters, which are fine fibres framing the seed of the cotton plant, which are disposed of by the textile and oil industries. We also have our sights set on finding fast-growing, renewable cellulose alternatives that help to conserve resources.

Next to cotton, alpha cellulose fibres are the second major ingredient in our papers. Cellulose fibres are mechanically and chemically prepared to extract the lignin from the fibres. Cellulose fibres come from different resources like pinewood, beech and eucalyptus. All of the cellulose fibres used by Hahnemühle are from sustainable forestry with either FSC or PEFC certification.

We use electricity and natural gas as our energy sources. For many years now, all the electricity we need has been generated exclusively from renewable sources, such as wind, water and solar energy. This enables us to sustainably reduce our CO₂ emissions. We heat our site using natural gas. Due to our waste heat recovery system, the emissions from our furnace are considerably below the legal limits, by more than 40%.Another key element of sustainable resource management is recycling.

Any production waste or scrap materials are returned to the production cycle and, if that isn’t possible, they are handed over to other waste processors. We always give priority to recycled material as long as it can be used in our products without reducing their quality. Clean water, natural fibres, first-rate expertise in the art of paper production and absolute commitment to quality have formed the foundation of our success for over 435 years.

In our business, we feel we have a certain duty towards the environment. For many years, we have been supporting both regional and international environmental projects as part of our ‘Green Rooster’ initiative, including reforestation, animal protection and environmental education programmes. These projects are very important to us and we’re delighted to be able to use a share of the profits from our Natural Line to contribute towards environmental and climate protection.

We are proud of what we have achieved so far and are constantly working towards putting further measures in place and finding more environmentally friendly and sustainable ways to run our business. Our proximity to the natural world provides a daily reminder of what we need to protect. For us, this is both a responsibility and an incentive.