Transparency drives accountability. Publishing our environmental performance data holds us to our commitments and provides our customers, partners, and fellow manufacturers with concrete benchmarks rather than vague sustainability claims. This report covers 3DCentral’s 2025 environmental performance across four key areas: energy consumption, material waste, supply chain emissions, and shipping efficiency. The numbers tell the story of where we are, how far we have come, and where we are heading.
Environmental reporting in the 3D printing industry is still uncommon, particularly among small and medium operations. Most companies speak in generalities about sustainability without attaching specific metrics. We believe the industry benefits from transparency, and we encourage other manufacturers to measure and share their own performance data. The more data points that exist, the better the entire sector can benchmark and improve.
Energy Performance and Hydroelectric Advantage
Our Laval, Quebec production facility runs entirely on Quebec’s hydroelectric grid, which generates over 95 percent of the province’s electricity from renewable water power. This means that every kilowatt-hour consumed by our fleet of 200-plus printers produces approximately 1.2 grams of CO2 equivalent, compared to the Canadian national average of approximately 110 grams per kilowatt-hour.
Per-Unit Energy Consumption
In 2025, our per-unit energy consumption decreased by 12 percent compared to the previous year. This improvement came from three primary sources. First, fleet upgrades replaced older printers with newer models featuring more efficient stepper motors, heated beds with better thermal insulation, and optimized firmware that reduces idle power consumption. Second, production scheduling improvements increased printer utilization rates, meaning less energy spent on idle heating and standby modes. Third, slicer profile optimization reduced average print times per unit by approximately 8 percent, directly translating to lower energy consumption per finished product.
The total energy consumption of our facility increased in absolute terms due to production volume growth, but the energy intensity per product, the metric that matters for environmental performance, declined meaningfully. This is the pattern of sustainable growth: scaling production while reducing the environmental cost of each individual unit.
Heating and Climate Control
Quebec’s cold winters present both a challenge and an opportunity for energy management. Printer operation generates significant waste heat, which during winter months contributes to facility heating and reduces our HVAC energy requirements. During summer, additional cooling is needed, but Quebec’s moderate summers keep this load manageable. The net effect is that our climate control energy costs are lower than they would be in regions with extreme heat.
Material Waste Metrics
Total material waste dropped to 4.2 percent of consumed filament in 2025, down from 5.1 percent in 2024, a reduction of nearly 18 percent year over year. This metric includes all forms of material waste: failed prints, support structures, purge material, first-layer calibration waste, and quality-control rejects.
What Drove the Improvement
Smart print orientation optimization was the largest single contributor to waste reduction. By analyzing each model’s geometry and selecting the orientation that minimizes support volume while maintaining surface quality, we reduced average support material usage by approximately 22 percent across our catalog. This optimization is ongoing, as new models are added and slicer algorithms continue to improve.
Early failure detection systems, which monitor the first layers of each print for adhesion problems, extrusion inconsistencies, and mechanical issues, reduced the average material lost per failed print. By catching failures within the first few minutes rather than allowing them to run for hours, we save both material and machine time.
Quality control improvements reduced the rejection rate for finished products. Better calibration consistency across the fleet, standardized environmental controls, and more rigorous per-model profile testing all contributed to fewer products failing final inspection.
Waste Destination
Of the 4.2 percent total waste, approximately 60 percent was sorted and stored for our planned filament recycling program. The remaining 40 percent, primarily mixed-color waste and contaminated material, went to conventional waste management. Our goal is to divert 80 percent or more of production waste from landfill through in-house recycling within the next 18 months.
Material Sourcing and Supply Chain
Our developing Quebec-based filament line reduced supply chain emissions by shortening the distance between raw material sourcing, filament production, and finished product manufacturing. Sourcing PLA pellets from North American suppliers rather than overseas sources eliminated transoceanic shipping from our material supply chain.
Local sourcing also provides supply chain resilience. Global logistics disruptions, which have become increasingly common, have minimal impact when your supply chain spans hundreds of kilometers rather than tens of thousands. This resilience is not just a business advantage but an environmental one, as disruptions often lead to emergency air freight shipments with dramatically higher emissions.
Material Quality and Consistency
Shorter supply chains also improve material quality consistency. Filament that has spent weeks in a shipping container crossing an ocean may absorb moisture or experience temperature fluctuations that degrade print quality. Locally sourced and locally produced filament arrives fresher, drier, and more consistent, which in turn reduces print failures and waste.
Shipping and Distribution Efficiency
Average shipping distance per order decreased by 8 percent in 2025 as our Canadian customer base grew relative to international orders. This organic shift toward local customers reflects both our Canadian-focused marketing and the growing awareness among Canadian consumers that locally manufactured products carry a smaller transportation footprint.
Packaging optimization reduced average package volume by 15 percent through right-sizing initiatives. By better matching box dimensions to product dimensions, we reduced void fill requirements and improved shipping vehicle utilization. More products per truck means fewer trucks on the road for the same order volume.
Our dual-channel availability through both our direct Shop and Amazon Canada ensures that customers can receive products through whichever logistics network is most efficient for their location. Browse our collections of ducks, gnomes, and figurines to see the full range of sustainably manufactured collectibles.
2026 Targets and Commitments
Based on 2025 performance and current improvement trajectories, we have set the following targets for 2026. Reducing total material waste to 3.5 percent of consumed filament through continued print optimization and early failure detection improvements. Launching the in-house filament recycling program, initially processing PLA waste sorted by color family. Transitioning inner packaging cushioning to biodegradable alternatives. Pursuing carbon-neutral certification for all Canadian domestic shipments through verified offset programs. Reducing per-unit energy consumption by an additional 8 to 10 percent through fleet upgrades and scheduling optimization.
These targets are ambitious but achievable based on the work already underway. We will report on our progress against these targets in our 2026 impact report. Learn more about our operations, materials, and manufacturing philosophy on our About page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How does 3DCentral measure its material waste rate? A: We track total filament consumed (by weight) against finished product output (by weight). The difference, which includes failed prints, support structures, purge material, and quality-control rejects, constitutes our waste percentage. In 2025, this figure was 4.2 percent, meaning over 95 percent of all filament consumed became finished product.
Q: Why does Quebec’s electricity grid make such a difference for manufacturing emissions? A: Quebec generates over 95 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric power, producing approximately 1.2 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour. In comparison, regions dependent on natural gas or coal can produce 400 to 900 grams per kilowatt-hour. Since electricity powers our entire production process, this single factor reduces our manufacturing carbon footprint by 99 percent compared to coal-powered production.
Q: What happens to 3DCentral products that fail quality inspection? A: Products that do not meet our quality standards are sorted by material type and color, then stored for our in-house filament recycling program. Rather than sending rejects to landfill, we plan to grind and re-extrude this material into production-grade filament, closing the material loop within our facility.
