The rising awareness and global shift surrounding environmental issues and human impact towards improving this, has led to individuals, communities and governments to become more environmentally conscious.
This has led to sustainability becoming a clearer priority. Following this trend, businesses are making more strategic decisions to improve their corporate social sustainability and one method to work towards this is adopting a green printing strategy.
No matter what size an organisation is, there is always an opportunity to improve the business’ eco-friendly position through implementing green printing practices.
In this modern age, all organisations have a high reliance on printing, whether that may be for internal documents or external documents for customers. This reliance on printers, combined with consumer demand and expectations of environmentally sustainable practices, brings the necessity for businesses to introduce green printing. In fact, a global study of 20,000 participants found that 61% of people believe sustainability is mandatory for businesses.
To begin, wasteful practices within the organisation must be identified and addressed so that the best green printing strategies can be implemented. This can be done via a print audit measuring not only waste, but energy consumption.
The desire for green printing strategies comes from the realisation that common day-to-day business printing activities are in fact having a negative effect on the environment. One of the most common and overlooked areas is the purchase and disposal of printer ink and toner cartridges. The production of ink cartridges release many harmful emissions, and what’s worse is the lack of toner cartridge recycling, with over 375 million empty ink and toner cartridges thrown away each year, mostly ending up in landfills.
Another common area where businesses fail to manage in order to be environmentally friendly is paper wastage. Printing waste within an organisation can be caused by many factors, including unintentionally printing multiple copies, printing one-sided paper, using inefficient paper and ink processes and simply printing unnecessary documents such as emails and faxes.
There are various strategies which can be implemented within organisations to improve a green printing approach. This usually begins with a print audit whereby areas of weakness can be identified. Some strategies simply include using alternative equipment and consumables, such as more energy efficiency devices and recycled/recyclable materials. As aforementioned, if recycled ink cartridges were used, the harmful effect of the production process will be greatly minimised.
Another green printing strategy focuses on device and document management. To reduce the amount of paper wastage, document workflow processes can be implemented. With mases of information going through an organisation, information is unnecessarily stored and printed in various locations leading to business’ loosing considerable amounts of money through hidden costs, as well as a poor corporate social responsibility. Effective document workflow will ensure that documents are easy to find, use and share electronically, removing the need of excess printing.
With print and document management, settings can be automated and streamlined to ensure that documents always print double sided or only use black and white ink/toner. This encourages responsible printing, minimising any waste produced and reducing excess emissions.
Apogee’s green printing solutions seeks to reduce your organisations waste significantly, while also cutting your costs and improving security. The right software for your organisation will be established to optimise performance and enforce printing rules where waste and misuse is occurring. As 20% of all printed and copied material is wasted, it is important to get more involved with this strategy to become less reliant on printing.
To find out more about what Apogee’ green printing strategy can offer to your organisation, get in touch today or fill in the form below.
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