Sustainability is rising fast, reflecting consumer recognition of humanities impact on the environment.

Some organisations may have already started reviewing and implementing changes to lessen the effect their business has on the environment, or maybe just starting on the journey.

Could a Managed Print Service (MPS) help your business drive its environmental policy? After all, we spend a large proportion of our waking lives in the office so why not bring the ‘go green’ policy into the office environment?

Creating a sustainable workplace

IT is the most powerful driver helping organisations make the shift towards a more environmentally friendly office. With IT software and hardware advancements, creating a sustainable workplace doesn’t have to be a hard or monumental task. On balance, a tailored MPS solution can help organisations reduce costs, improve productivity and meet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies without being costly or taking up too much time.

There are many concerns for organisations and some areas that they may find most challenging include:

• Reducing maintenance costs
• Understanding usage
• Reducing energy consumption
• Controlling costs
• Enforcing companywide print policies
• Time spent on printer administration
• Document security
• Device reliability
• Supplies management
• New device installations

With these challenges facing organisations, it may seem a daunting task yet it could be as simple as a review of current assets. Sustainable printing begins with device rationalisation and consolidation. That is to say, organisations can gain environmental efficiencies from consolidating devices and the deployment of energy efficient printers. As can be seen in the advancements of multi-functional devices which consolidate multiple functions into one machine.

• Fewer machines
• Fewer types of consumables
• Less time and fewer resources to manage
• Space saving
• Savings in energy consumption

An MPS solution is tailored around business needs and by introducing power saving technology, waste-reducing tools and software solutions it helps business decrease energy use, cut consumable waste and reduce the organisations overall environmental footprint.

Responsible Printing

By using automated settings for printing its ensures printed documents default to double sided or only uses black and white ink/toner. With implementing effective document workflows it ensures that documents are easy to find, use and share electronically, removing the need of excess printing. Therefore, this encourages responsible printing, minimising any waste produced and reducing excess emissions. The amount of resources used will decrease, along with associated power and electricity consumption – all contributing to a better carbon footprint. By having a green IT policy organisations can encourage the workforce to consider green printing practices to reduce paper usage.

• Automatically rerouting larger print jobs to a more cost efficient devices
• Booklet or Duplex (double-sided printing) printing as default
• Pull printing or PIN printing can reduce misprinting – and reduce security leaks
• Choosing eco-conscious paper like HP and MultiCopy who offer FSC or PEFC certified office paper
• Distributing all documents electronically and implementing a strict print policy encouraging saving files digitally instead of printing.
• Implementing document workflows enabling document to be scanned, stored and shared digitally
• Putting in place a plan to manage the devices end of life for recycling
• Encouraging recycling practices. Recycling all used printed materials. (If security is a concern, pass sensitive or confidential documents through a shredder prior to recycling.)
• Using energy efficient MFPs which have faster warm up times, toner saving and deep sleep modes.
• Using eco-friendly ink cartridges or sustainable ink cartridges, from brands such as HP, which has a 25-year history of recycling with over 784 million ink cartridges recycled to date. Today, more than 75% of Original HP ink cartridges and 24% of Original HP Toner cartridges contain recycled content.

Place sustainability on the agenda

While sustainability probably isn’t the sole consideration in your document management decision, it should be a big part of it.

We provide print and document technology from leading manufacturers to satisfy the needs of any size and type of organisation. The wide range of devices can be selected to provide high performance and quality prints and meet environmental goals whilst helping organisations move forward in its digital transformation. Apogee are committed to helping out clients with their sustainability efforts by reducing the environmental impact of working with documents.

We hope that by even considering an MPS provider for your fleet of devices, you are inspired to do more within your organisation to help our world.

If you want to know more about the devices that can reduce your carbon footprint within your organisation, experts at Apogee will discuss all options available that will provide the best solution for your organisation. Please contact us today or call us on 0345 300 9955.