Green Printing Tips to Help Reduce Environmental Impact

Not everyone defines green printing the same way. There isn’t a standard or certification to indicate that a printer or print process is “green”. However, there are accreditations for highlighting environmentally friendly standards, such as ISO 14001. Every organisation should look for ways to become as efficient as possible and do as much as they can to reduce their carbon footprint.

The concept of green printing throughout an organisation can be reinforced through the print hardware, print software and company-wide print policies.

The latest office printers and multi-functional devices (MFDs) include many built-in features to reduce their environmental impact. Energy efficiency modes ensure machines switch to ‘night mode’ when not in use. More innovative printers can conserve resources and cut costs in half compared to traditional colour lasers through decreasing the amount of materials used and using less harmful materials.

Print management software can help your organisation work towards a green printing philosophy. “Follow me printing” or “Pull Printing” means staff can release print jobs using a secure access code to any machine in your organisation, eliminating the waste of abandoned prints. Rules-based printing reduces toner consumption by defaulting to mono, double-sided printing, only on the current page – particularly useful with large email streams.

Print policies should be set, managed and enforced to encourage positive print behaviour and ensure staff comply to your organisation’s green printing standards. Routing high volume print jobs to lower cost devices can significantly reduce your environmental impact, whereas policies to set a maximum number of pages and paper sizes can reduce waste and consumable usage.

Green Printing in Your Organisation

If you would like to find out how you can optimise your organisation’s performance by adopting a green printing philosophy, then get in touch with Apogee today by completing the contact form below.