Document Management

Making green New Year’s resolutions

B2B Editor1 January 2013

Making green New Year’s resolutions

We’re all feeling the pressure to reduce our carbon footprint these days and what a better way to start the year than enacting eight simple changes to how staff print and manage documents in your office?

1. Rationalise your office equipment
There is no longer a need to buy and run individual printers, photocopiers, scanners and faxes – a multifunctional device (MFD) can do it all for you. By consolidating your office equipment with an MFD you’ll reduce electricity, CO2, consumables, complexity in managing multiple devices and service contracts, floor space and, ultimately reduce your bottom line costs.
2. Print on both sides
It’s simple but effective: set ‘duplex’ as your default preference for all your office printers and copiers. By printing on both sides of a sheet you’ll reduce paper usage by as much as 50%.
3. Prevent uncollected printouts
Everyone gets annoyed when they see uncollected and forgotten printouts on the office printer and MFD. One way to prevent this is by using a Locked Print feature, either on the device or through additional software. Locked Print means that when a document is sent to print, it is stored on the printer and will not be released for print until it is ‘unlocked’ by a user at the device.
4. Digital documents
By implementing document management technology you can eliminate the need of accessing hard copy documents. Instead of reproducing and storing hard copies of documents, you scan, archive, retrieve them and use soft copies to send out. You can significantly reduce costs and time by emailing invoices, statements and letters rather than printing and posting them.
5. Expand your marketing into the digital space
Send a digital brochure to your clients or prospects instead of a printed one. This not only reduces your business’s carbon footprint, but it is also a great cost and time saver.
6. Use recycled or sustainable paper
Embark on an office policy to only use either recycled paper or paper that is certified as sustainable. There are different certifications available, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Program for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and ISO 14001.
7. Sign-up to free recycling programs
There are some manufacturers in the market that offer free programs for both consumable and machine recycling. Be sure to do your research to find the program to best suit your business.
8. Use power save mode
Make it a policy in your office to have every office printer on power save mode when it sits idle for 20 minutes. To ensure your office remains efficient keep the quick start-up function on for a quick recovery from energy-saving mode. This still allows users to print and pick up jobs whenever they need to.

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