The following appears on quocirca.com by Louella Fernandes
November 2013
With pressure mounting on organisations to reduce their environmental impact, sustainability is still high on the corporate IT agenda, despite the challenging economy. Although interest in green IT is growing, the impact of printing is often overlooked. However, left uncontrolled, it can be a huge source of waste – both financial and environmental.
A “less-paper” office based on an optimised print infrastructure can be a prime enabler for sustainability. Using intelligent print management and document workflow tools can enable organisations to significantly reduce their environmental impact while cutting costs, driving operational efficiency and improving regulatory compliance.
Introduction
Across both the private and public sector, rising energy prices, mounting regulatory pressures and increasing environmental awareness by stakeholders is seeing sustainability gradually moving higher up the corporate agenda in Europe. According to The Economic Intelligence Unit1, sustainability remains a strong focus for European companies, despite the challenging economy, 52% of companies maintaining their commitment to sustainability objectives.
Carbon reporting has now been mandated by many regulators across Europe, through the Climate Change Act and the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. Carbon footprint reporting is mandatory for UK listed companies from 2013, and since 2012 the Grenelle II law has required companies in France to report on their environmental and social performance.
As organisations work to reduce their environmental impact, they are putting their IT infrastructure under increasing scrutiny. According to the European Commission2, addressing IT has the potential to cut economy-wide carbon emissions by up to 15% by 2020, primarily through improved monitoring and management of energy use. Indeed, effective use of IT can facilitate a more sustainable organisation, as illustrated by the virtuous triangle of green IT3.
One area where this model can be applied to great effect is the enterprise print infrastructure. Many organisations still have a patchwork of energy-inefficient printers and copiers, leading to excessive use of paper, ink and toner – each of which has its own
environmental impacts.
Whilst some organisations have taken steps to reduce the energy consumption associated with their printer fleet through device consolidation, further environmental savings can be made by minimising wasteful printing through the use of intelligent print management tools. This can help accelerate the move to a less-paper office, which lowers costs – both financial and environmental – while improving productivity and enhancing document security.
This paper highlights the environmental impact of printing, and recommends strategies for achieving a cost-effective, reliable and sustainable print infrastructure.
Reducing the paper trail
Despite the era of mass digital communication and the almost ubiquitous mobile device, the much-talked-about ‘paperless office’ remains a myth rather than reality. Printing is still central to many business processes, with much communication and documentation still conducted via a paper trail. This is highlighted in a recent Quocirca survey 4 where over 60% of enterprises indicated that printing is very important or critical in supporting their business activities. Almost half of respondents said they were seeing rising levels of colour printing, driving up usage of consumables such as ink and toner as well as paper.
Left uncontrolled, printing can be a huge drain, financially and environmentally. Many organisations operate a fragmented print infrastructure – a disparate mix of printers, copiers and scanners with different supplies, support and maintenance requirements.
This leads to escalating consumables and paper costs, and unmonitored and uncontrolled energy consumption, particularly when printers are under-utilised. On top of this, few organisations have the tools to track and monitor print usage – with 55% of organisations in Quocirca’s survey indicating that they are struggling to understand usage.