Energy and sustainability in the office setting
Business owners understand the importance of being energy efficient.
It’s the right thing to do. However, it may not always be top of mind to a business owner, with the day-to-day challenges of running a company in as efficient a manner as possible.
Yet there is a common intersection point between watching the bottom line and doing your part to save the planet.
The area of document generation is one place where a company can achieve savings and also become more energy conscious and sustainable.
Statistics show the average employee at a large company or nonprofit organization generates 10,000 paper copies per year. It’s easy to see how, when you think of correspondence, memos, policies on technology, or employee handbooks. In some cases more than 50% of an employee’s time is spent working with documents.
In the United States, companies spend more than $120 billion annually on printed forms and documents, many of which become outdated in three to six months.
The average company expends up to 3% of its total income (gross earnings) on tasks related to generation of documents. So, if a business grosses $10 million in annual sales, the company spends up to $300,000 annually in document generation costs.
Through the use of proper equipment and conservation measures, a company can save up to 25% of this document generation cost. With the previous example, that could amount to $75,000 in annual savings.
Considering the life cycle of each document, many organizations spend more than they need to in creation, management and disposition of documents. The energy and cost-saving practice of Managed Print Services helps centralize operations and track use of documents to determine if the workflow is operating efficiently.
Most copiers in service today are multifunction printers, which are more sophisticated and energy-efficient than their predecessors and than what you might buy from the “big box” stores. That $299 printer looks attractive because of the low purchase price but the frequency of needing replacement cartridges drives up the per-page cost of creating a document to six or seven cents, or even more.
Selecting the most efficient copier/printer (today known as Multi Function Printers) will significantly reduce the per-page price of document generation. The initial purchase price is higher, but the return on investment is achieved fairly early in the life cycle of the machine.
Another important conservation steps with copiers and printers is the availability of software programs that can collect and report on data, in particular printing costs: what is being printed, and where the printing originates (in the case of multiple units in the business). The data can reveal who within the organization is printing these documents and can suggest a smoother, more efficient way to generate documents. As one example, it is more expensive to generate a document on an InkJet printer than some MFPs; part of every energy and sustainability effort should be to assess which units within the organization should be used for what purposes.
Data analysis through this software can show an organization where its usages are falling short — or where the printer/MFP can be used more efficiently. Certain software programs will analyze the level of toner still available, and report to the user when it is time to replace — or, in the case of a company working with an outside managed print services provider, it can be done automatically.
Other ways to boost energy savings and sustainability in the office include archiving and conversion of documents to electronic format, and boosting electronic communication in general. Today’s document generation equipment includes “heat free” copiers, environmentally friendly ink and toner, and enhanced recycling systems for the disposition of toner. And don’t forget the tried-and-true practices of printing two sided documents where feasible and using recycled paper. Incorporating these practices will reduce your carbon footprint and help save on the cost of generating documents. There’s no time like the present to evaluate the ways you can reduce costs and be more sustainable.
• Vince Miceli is vice president of technology at Pulse Technology, pulsetechnology.com, a company that helps businesses with managed print services, IT and a number of other needs. Pulse Technology is headquartered in Schaumburg.