It’s Time for Businesses to Embrace a Green Printing Strategy

In this challenging economy, businesses are increasingly seeking ways to cut costs while helping the environment. An eco-friendly initiative that businesses should consider is adopting a green printing strategy. A green printing strategy focuses on reducing the carbon footprint of office printing. Green printing is a movement that has been steadily gaining momentum over the last several years. Aiding the environment and boosting corporate profits need not be mutually exclusive items. Let’s examine the environmental and economic benefits of embracing certain green printing practices.

Reduce Paper Usage

According to MILNER Document Products, a single case of paper uses roughly 60 percent of a tree. The average employee will consume 10,000 pages, or 2 cases, of paper per year. A company with 100 employees will consume 200 cases of paper per year, which is the equivalent of 120 trees. In addition to the environmental costs, this scenario will prove to be very costly to the company. With a case of paper costing over $30, the company would have to spend $6,000 per year on paper. By simply switching to duplex, or two-sided, printing, it is easy to see how a typical business with 100 employees could save $3000 per year and 60 trees.

Consolidate Printer, Copier, Fax and Scan Devices

MILNER Document Products has stated that the average office copier consumes 285 KWh of electricity each month and the average office printer consumes 49 KWh each month. By consolidating printer, copier, fax and scan devices, companies could save thousands of dollars each month. The environmental benefits would be enormous as well. The reduction in the number of devices would translate to less energy usage, which would reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Companies should look for consolidated devices with Energy Star certified systems to maximize efficiency and benefits to the environment.

Think Ink

Businesses should utilize vegetable or soy-based inks instead of petroleum-based inks as part of its green printing strategy. These eco-friendly inks are competitively priced with petroleum-based inks and are low in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which are harmful to the environment. Soy-based inks are known to produce incredibly bright and vibrant final products, which could be very beneficial to businesses looking to disseminate material to people for marketing or promotional purposes. While soy-based inks may be slightly more costly than petroleum-based ink, it has been reported that more papers can be printed with less soy ink, which makes it cost-efficient in the long run.

It should come as no surprise that many companies have embraced green printing strategies to benefit the environment and boost profits by cutting costs. Consumers will appreciate such efforts as well, which can only help businesses’ bottom line.

Chris Richards is an online instructor and coordinator for The College City. Chris has adopted several green printing practices to save money at the personal level and help the environment.