The greener side of printing

Nitin Hiranandani outlines certain measures that can help an enterprise trim its printing and imaging costs by up to 30%

Nitin Hiranandani

As the mantra of ‘Go Green!’ gains momentum in the corporate environment, companies are paying more attention to their carbon footprint. Contrary to the myth that being environmentally responsible is not profitable, incorporating such practices can actually help organizations save costs. IT comprises an important component of this ‘Green’ movement, and by implementing technology that conserves energy, companies can take a big step forward towards cutting their carbon footprint. Within the IT infrastructure, enterprises can save up to 30% of their costs if the printing and imaging environment is correctly analyzed, deployed, and maintained within the office. Some preliminary steps that organizations can take to ensure that they are heading in the green printing direction are highlighted below:

Reduce energy consumption

One of the first steps to reducing energy consumption is in choosing the right products. Check with the IT provider for a list of energy-efficient products that are Energy Star qualified. Simultaneously, organizations should look out for features designed to reduce energy usage while choosing their imaging and printing devices. In addition, they can choose multi-function devices that perform the functions of multiple machines, thereby reducing the overall energy consumption by consolidating the number of devices required in an office environment.

Organizations can also leverage print management tools to enhance management efficiency and provide environmental benefits at the network level, such as setting printer sleep and wake modes to reduce their entire printing fleet’s energy use. Additionally, print management tools enable customers to install, configure, troubleshoot and manage all of their networked imaging and printing devices.

Understand the carbon footprint of your imaging and printing function

To gain a better understanding of their imaging and printing carbon footprint, as well as develop an actionable roadmap to reduce this footprint, organizations can leverage tools that help companies understand how much they are saving. It is important that customers gain visibility into their carbon footprint by comparing their existing printer fleet to that of a new, optimized fleet, and understand how they can reduce their impact on the environment and reap energy savings.

Reduce paper use

Implementing default duplex printing is a simple and effective way for organizations to reduce paper usage while achieving cost savings. According to Gartner, organizations can potentially reduce annual paper costs by at least 30% by selecting duplex printing as the default setting across the output fleet. Organizations can achieve this by deploying duplex-capable devices and setting duplex printing defaults at the network level through effective printing tools.

In addition, organizations can leverage applications that allow users to select, collect, store, combine, and print information from multiple Web pages. Allowing users to print only what they want, this helps the organization save on both ink and paper. Additionally, companies can implement user-authenticated printing solutions; not only do these solutions improve security and compliance, they can also reduce wasted paper and energy.
According to Gartner, “With as many as one in 10 documents sent to the printer and uncollected or sent again before collection to correct user errors, enterprises could reduce ad hoc print costs by up to 10% by implementing a PIN authentication system.”

Manage your imaging and printing environment professionally

Large organizations whose imaging and printing environment consist of a mix of old and new equipment, over- or under-utilized, often face challenges in the management and procurement of their printing infrastructure. By opting for managed print services (MPS), these organizations can reduce the total cost of ownership associated with an unmanaged print environment by assessing the existing printing environment, as well as reduce the environmental impact and achieve cost savings.

Having the printing infrastructure planned and managed by a vendor means that organizations spend less time fixing printing problems, ordering toner, ink and paper or implementing new document management and workflow solutions. By adopting efficient and responsible printing practices, businesses can save consumables and energy whilst reducing downtime and improving productivity.

Better printing practices also mean that the environmental impact of printing can also be reduced. Implementing managed print services can reduce the number of devices in use, and optimize the device-to-employee ratio, translating into reduced energy usage.

Don’t forget to recycle

Environmentally-responsible printing and imaging partners make it easy for customers to do their part in recycling printing supplies and printing hardware. These vendors take back their original equipment, and refurbish or remanufacture it appropriately to repackage and resell it, and simultaneously adhere to strict processes to protect user data and meet environmental requirements. This ensures that returned products are recycled properly, diverting millions of tons of waste from landfills.

The author is Director – Managed Enterprise Services, Imaging and Printing Group, HP India