By Elizabeth Leslie- marketing programs manager, Office and Production Marketing.
Case studies from virtually every industry show that it’s possible for businesses today to develop green initiatives that will make a quantifiable contribution to both the environment and the bottom line.
These efforts often deliver other qualitative benefits including improvements in employee morale, customer loyalty and brand image to name a few.
All of these valuable business results are definitely within reach when you take a disciplined, pragmatic and committed approach to the development and implementation of a smart sustainable strategy.
Projects that produce a quick, concrete ROI will prove the value of sustainability and set the stage for more ambitious undertakings in the future. As a business, you may find ways to make a bigger impact down the road, however, in the beginning you need to win broad-based support for your efforts from senior leaders and other stakeholders.
One of the easiest places to start is within your office printing environment. Optimising under-utilised equipment and exchanging standalone devices for multifunction units where appropriate can realise some significant environmental savings.
The NSW Department of Education and Communities is introducing a managed imaging utility service arrangement to NSW public schools through its Pay as You Print Optimisation Program.
Seventy schools have already had their imaging fleets optimised with the latest technology and based on these results, the Program is projected to deliver energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions of 26 per cent, as well as a reduction in solid waste of 28 per cent. This is an impressive outcome when you consider it’s based solely on moving, removing or upgrading devices.
Office printing devices which have induction heating fuser technology consume approximately 80 per cent less energy than those that use traditional fuser technology to melt toner and affix it to the paper.
Devices with sleep and low power modes help conserve energy while the device is not in use, as this can reduce power consumption by over 90 per cent compared to stand-by mode.
The latest multifunction devices even have the ability to learn how they are being used and can automatically modify their behaviour to minimise power consumption without impacting the productivity of staff that want to use it.
There are also a large number of different paper certification systems which can assist you in making sustainable paper choices.
Forest certification means that forest managers have their operation audited against a credible standard as determined by an independent certifying organisation.
These principles and criteria cover issues such as compliance with legal requirements, protection of biodiversity, protection of high conservation values, and prevention of deforestation, community relations, and civil and indigenous peoples’ rights.
Choosing a sustainable paper is great, but it is just the beginning.
Research suggests that up to 20 per cent of print outs are never collected, and up to 40 per cent are disposed of less than 48 hours after being printed.
This shocking figure represents an opportunity to quickly reduce wastage with minimal business impact. Implementing a follow-me print solution means documents are only printed when the user releases from the multifunction device, using a swipe card or entering a code at the device.
Applying business rules and routing to the behaviour of your print device can also have great environmental benefits.
This could be as simple as defaulting your device to print double-sided or as complex as programs which automatically analyse the type of document, its size and even time of day to route it to the most sustainable printing device.
Enacting behavioural changes within an office environment is no mean feat however.
The deployment of any of these strategies requires a robust change management framework.
Even simple changes like walking further to a device can have surprising impacts when it comes to employee engagement and behaviour, so it must not be underestimated.
Clearly communicating the environmental benefits associated with the changes you are making can greatly assist in securing employee buy-in as the way they are used to printing changes.
Using tools like carbon calculators and more complex tools that can assess environmental impact from aspects such as shipping of the device and its components, and the amount of waste that it creates, can help you to create compelling reasons for change and help support a smooth transition.
While we can’t change the past, we can change the future. It gives us the opportunity to make a real difference for our companies, our customers, our communities and the world around us.
The key to success in the demanding, cost-conscious world of business is to make sustainability both sustainable and achievable by developing and implementing effective green practices that deliver a clear ROI in terms of both the planet and the bottom line.
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