The average office employee consumes 10,000 pages of paper per year, which equates to 1.2 trees per year. Add to that the greenhouse gases and electricity, it's not surprising that printing has a huge impact on our environment.
In addition to this there's the economic impact. 3% of annual revenues are consumed by office printing and with print volumes increasing at 11% per year, the financial impact of printing for any business is only set to go up.
Fortunately, with a Managed Print Service, there are ways we can improve our carbon footprint and reduce print costs.
1. Reduce Paper Waste
Rules Based Printing - Implement printing rules to ensure smart printing practices, such as double-sided or mono-only, are upheld.
Secure ID Printing - In addition to making typical savings of between 10% and 15%, Secure ID Printing (or follow-me printing) eliminates poor habits such as printing unnecessary documents and forgetting to collect them. Users select which jobs to print at the device, allowing for mistakes and duplicates to be cancelled rather than printed and thrown away.
Print Management Software - Print Management Software can reduce print waste by up to 15%. By having full visibility of your print environment you are able to monitor and change poor printing practices.
Print a Proof Copy - Before committing to a large print run, print a proof copy to check for mistakes.
Print on Demand - Printing items such as letterhead and price lists in bulk often saves time, but doesn't always save paper. When they become out of date due to a small detail change they get thrown away and reprinted. Use your MFPs great features and get into the habit of printing smaller quantities more often.
Scan Documents for Distribution - Instead of printing documents needed for distribution across the business, utilise the scanning feature on your MFP. Scan to folder, scan to email and scan to your PC directly from the device.
Fax Forwarding - Fax machines are often left on 24-hours a day but only used a fraction of the time. Make use of the fax forwarding option on your MFP, avoiding the need to print them out.
2. Reduce Energy Consumption
Consolidate Your Machines - If you have devices in your office that only have one sole purpose e.g. printer, scanner, fax machine, photocopier, consider replacing them with energy efficient Multi Function Printers that can do it all. Reducing the number of machines within your office will not only save you money on your print costs, but also significantly reduce your energy consumption.
Turn It Off - An MFP left on overnight uses enough energy to make 1,500 copies. Switch off your MFPs overnight and at weekends and only switch on when it's required the following day. Newer machines start up much faster so employees are more likely to comply with this rule. Enable printer stand-by modes during the day to ensure minimal energy consumption. Install a plug-in seven-day timer as an easy way to automate switching your machine off and on.
Purchase Energy Efficient Devices - Look for MFPs that are energy efficient. If you're unsure and need advice, speak to our experts.
Educate Employees - As part of your Managed Print Service with Fastek, we encourage initial training days for your employees, teaching them smart printing practices from the start.
3. Considering the Environment
Dispose of Unwanted Equipment Correctly - At Fastek, we encourage businesses to dispose of any old and unwanted devices according to the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive guidelines. If machines are in good condition and still have market value, we are happy to sell them on your behalf, or purchase them ourselves to use for our short term rental initiative.
Recycle empty cartridges and supplies - Plastics used in toner cartridges are extremely slow to decompose and have a significant impact on our landfill. If you haven't already, look into a toner recycling policy for your business.
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