Sustainability and carbon footprint have been topics of concern for some years now. Job positions have been created to make companies “green” and to minimize effect on the environment. Although I’m not a team of specialists (I am certified in sustainability though, gold star me) I want to direct your attention to your copiers.
Printers and copiers may be the largest impact your company has on the environment – most of which comes from the paper these machines consume.
What effect does your copier have?
PrintReleaf, a platform for automated global reforestation, has determined that an adult tree provides 8,333 sheets of printer paper. A fleet of 50 devices printing 5,000 pages a month each will go through 360 trees a year. Consider all the printing happening daily in the world and the number is staggering.
Ink and toner is not as pretty as the images they produce on the paper. There are 350 million cartridges thrown out a year (and increasing every year); they then go to landfills where they take years to decompose and release toxic ingredients. Also, these copiers take power to run. Electricity not only racks up your power bill, but it also has to come from somewhere. Coal, oil, and natural gas are still the most common power plants found in America.
How can your copier help?
PrintReleaf is a service that tracks the number of pages you print each month and then does something great. For every 8,333 pages you print on a PrintReleaf certified device, they will plant a tree in a forest project of your choosing. You have a login portal where you can choose your projects, watch your paper usage, and track your reforesting results.
PrintReleaf can help you become paper neutral, planting the amount of paper you use. Another way to go above and beyond is to use recycled paper in your printers and copiers. Then you will be paper positive – reforesting trees for pages already recycled and not cut new.
Continue your sustainability efforts with recycling that empty toner cartridge instead of throwing them away. There are many places that offer toner recycling, Lasers Resource offers this service. If you want to set up an account to recycle your used toner cartridges for free, visit our page here!
Another thing to consider when it comes to toner cartridges, don’t actually replace it until it is completely empty. Many times we have found users replacing the cartridge when the “low” alert appears on the printer or copier. These alerts can be set up to notify of lower toner as soon as 25%; employees can be throwing away a quarter of your toner supply each year! Making sure you wait until the cartridge is completely empty before you recycle it can potentially save you a LOT of money.
Power consumption is an inevitable. How can this factor be influenced? Buy only equipment with Energy Star ratings. These will save you money and power over the long life of these devices.