Green Office’s mission is to make businesses efficient and sustainable, and what is important to remember is that these two terms are interlinked. Moving towards a more sustainable business model will allow for the identification of inefficiencies within your business, thus reducing operational costs.
Looking specifically at the print environment, Green Office has assisted their Managed Print Service (MPS) clients to do exactly that, by implementing various sustainability initiatives – reducing print volumes, reducing energy consumption, green procurement and printer cartridge recycling.
Reduce Print
Although offices around the world are steadily moving towards a digitised paperless environment, there are still businesses printing copious amounts of paper every day. Considering that paper use comprises the majority of a businesses’ carbon footprint with respect to printing, reducing print volumes is a no-brainer.
Also considering that approximately 45% of all prints are thrown away within 24 hours of being printed leaves a lot of room for improvement. While changing user behavior such as encouraging employees to print only what they need, using dual screens and print preview to reduce the number of accidental prints, enforcing duplex printing has proven to be highly beneficial to our clients from a sustainability and economic point of view – printing less means buying less paper and printer cartridges resulting in cost savings. Reducing print also has the environmental benefit of generating less waste – again reducing costs associated with recycling or as an absolute last resort, disposal.
Reduce Energy Consumption
Reducing electricity consumption at the office can be a challenge, but one of the easiest ways to do so is to simply switch your printers to sleep mode when not in use. Depending on the device, the difference between keeping a device on standby and switching to sleep mode can range from 1.5 kWh to 0.0008 kWh respectively. This may not seem like much, but the savings associated with sleep mode for 12 hours a day (overnight for example) over the year can result in significant energy savings. Considering that electricity tariffs are continuously on the rise, the cost savings associated with reduced energy use is a welcomed benefit.
Green Procurement
Green procurement means purchasing products and services that have a minimal impact on the environment. It incorporates human health and environmental concerns into the search for a high-quality product with competitive prices.
The environmental impact of manufacturing printer cartridges is well documented, so why not look into purchasing re-manufactured cartridges, they are eco-friendly as well as low carbon. These cartridges, manufactured by Green Office, provide the same high-quality print as original cartridges at a fraction of the cost, with the bonus of being kinder to the environment.
Cartridge Recycling
Sadly, the end life destination for many used printer cartridges in South Africa and around the world is landfill. Considering that a printer cartridge comprises of recyclable materials in its entirety (mostly plastics), it is sacrilege to think that cartridges are being thrown away, where they will take thousands of years to disintegrate in landfill, potentially leaching harmful volatile organic compounds into the soil and groundwater. Green Office provides a solution to this long-term problem by collecting your empty printer cartridges which will either be re-manufactured or recycled by our CSI, Green ABLE, thus diverting plastics and various metals from landfill.
Check out the below environmental savings our MPS clients achieved during 2018:
Are you interested in making your business more efficient and sustainable? Click on the below tab to request a call to find out how.
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