Print Your Mind 3D Provides 3D Printers to Schools Through Enviromakers Initiative

Print Your Mind 3D was founded in 2014 in Calgary, Alberta by Colin Pischke to provide 3D printing services. Their first focus was on the local market, but they have since expanded to serve clients all across Canada. The company holds at their core an obligation not only to provide high quality service, but also to practice their business in a socially responsible manner. They take that promise seriously and are proactive in their efforts to make the world a better place through 3D printing and help others to do so as well.

Their projects have included partnering with e-NABLE, the international non-profit that works to ensure the children with limb differences receive the prosthetics they need through 3D printing, as well as pushing the frontiers of research into the ways in which filament can be recycled into the creation of the components for food producing systems.

In this vein, they are currently working on a campaign that will allow them to donate 3D printers to schools or hubs across Canada that would otherwise not be able to afford the technology. For the entire months of June and July, for every 10 printers that are sold, they will donate one. In this way, they are working towards fulfilling what they see as an integral part of their responsibility by expanding the number of children who will have access to this game changing technology. They are calling this program the Enviromakers Initiative and were inspired by the American Cayenne Community, an organization which also gives a 3D printer to a school or community for every 10 sold. As Print Your Mind explained:

“With technology as powerful as 3D printing, it gives an incredible amount of creating potential in the hands of everyday people. We believe in using that power for good. That is why Print Your Mind 3D actively sponsors and supports collaborating with students, teachers, researchers, and businesses to help create solutions to real world problems using additive manufacturing to benefit people or the planet through our Enviromakers initiative…It is our belief that these sort of solutions should be available to anyone who owns a 3D printer. We are constantly exploring the many ways we can use 3D printers for good, and we are always interested to collaborate with like minded makers!”

This part of their Enviromakers Initiative will benefit countless students through the provision of technology to which they would not otherwise have access, helping disadvantaged children to get a leg up not provided by their surroundings. But it does more than that, it also encourages them to do good with that technology. And this model is not just good for the communities involved, although that alone would be sufficient reason to undertake it if it were, but it is also smart business. In addition to positive (and largely free) press coverage, the young people who are learning to 3D print are the future generation of customers and people tend to be loyal to, and communicative about, companies that have gone the extra mile (or kilometer since we’re in Canada) to help them. This isn’t charity, it’s an investment of the type that more companies are recognizing as better than advertising.

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