Can your printers help the environment?

Many organisations are now looking to their document output and printer and MFD fleets as areas which can support their environmental policies and are challenging their providers to design solutions that not only match their productivity, cost and security goals but are also defining sustainability as a key driver.

So if you are reviewing your fleet of devices and want to improve your carbon footprint then there are three key areas where your provider should be offering solutions:

1. Print Less.

It sounds obvious but the less you print, the less paper, toner and energy you consume. This is not only good for the environment but its also good for your budget, the less you use, the less you spend. By reducing the amount you print you will be able to reduce the number of printers you need, driving costs down further, so it makes real sense to ensure any new printer deployment includes a quality document output control solution such as Equitrac or Safecom.

These solutions help eliminate waste print and mange your print policies, the volume reductions are often staggering.

2. Think about what you are printing on.

Most documents are for internal use so why not use recycled paper? Clearly you will need to print some documents on quality paper but you could you just save that for customer facing collaterals?

3. Think about what you are printing with.

All devices will specify their energy use data, so as well as asking your provider to detail the cost of their printers ask them to provider energy consumption data too.

Ensure that any new printers and MFDs have the capability of going into a sleep or low power mode when not operating. Many devices still operate at maximum energy use 24/7, whereas others will only fully "warm up" when a print job arrives.

In recent years it has been the changes in print technology itself which has had the most impact. Laser devices which use a fuser unit tend to need the most energy, this is because a great deal of heat is required to fuse the toner to the paper. Solid Ink ColorQube devices from Xerox do not and have proven to be a real disruptive technology as the Solid Ink machines do not use fusers and therefore require less heat. In addition to this far less waste packaging is consumed, the below graphic shows how much waste is produced over a four year period printing just 22,000 pages per month.

So the next time you upgrade your fleet you may wish to consider the environmental impact of your providers solution before you deploy because if you don't it wont just be energy you could waste.

If you would like to learn more why not contact me directly at [email protected]