Green Retail – Business Alignment for a Cleaner Future

Part 1 – Print Smarter

One of the areas that I always like to consider when I’m thinking about how to improve a company’s business to technology alignment is the impact that not doing so can have on the environment.  It’s not something that comes immediately to mind when companies are considering their operational efficiency, but in truth, greater efficiency will in nearly all cases result in decreased waste and a subsequently lower carbon footprint.

Take printing for example.  It is not unusual for a company to take the environmentally conscious step of using recycled paper in their printers, but most don’t take the additional step of examining exactly how their printers are used. 

Please note that this is by no means a comprehensive review of the environmental impact of printing, which has implications ranging far beyond the content covered here. I’m focusing on only a couple specific, and easy to fix, areas.

A recent study by Infotrends, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, examined office workers printing behavior.  It found that while over 72% of all print jobs are text only, more than half of those jobs included color in the print.  If we extrapolate this out, we find that in a typical 500 person company, the act of not simply printing in black and white results in over 600,000 wasted color prints per year, with all of the additional cost to the organization (color prints cost between 4 and 8 times more than black and white) and the environmental impact of wasted color impressions, which consume materials unnecessarily, with said materials having a more substantial environmental impact to begin with.

A quick review of this statistic (with a little help from HP’s carbon footprint calculator) indicates that this 500 person company generates 95,000lb of CO emissions as a result of their standard printing behavior, and of this, nearly 15,000lb, or 15%, are pure waste based upon a lack of prudence in simply differentiating their black and white versus color printing.

Thankfully, this is an area of waste that is easily corrected.  A simple printing policy enforced on the company domain by the IT department can set all printing to default to B&W so that color prints must be specifically selected.  Configurations also exist within most workgroup class printers that will produce the desired effect as well, for those organizations lacking a strong IT presence. Doing so results in significant cost savings to the organization (which is always good for business alignment) as well as resulting in decreased maintenance requirements, which is good for productivity.

Another clearly remedied area of environmental waste is in the use of non-recycled paper.  In a standard office worker print job, the quality of paper used is of very little concern, and the vast majority of these prints can be done on recycled paper.  In my last company we adopted the credo that virgin paper was specifically reserved for presentation quality printing only.

Gone are the days when using recycled paper meant accepting dull-dingy prints, paper jams and limited availability, all while contributing to an industry in which questions surrounding the environmental impact of the recycling process lead to the inevitable question, “Is it worth it?” 

The paper companies have really gotten their act together on this front, and these days, the use of recycled paper actually offers many advantages over virgin.

According to Conservatree, a thought leader on intelligent paper choices, recycled paper offers the following advantages;

Quality

• Excellent performance
• Meets the same technical specifications as virgin papers
• Many are acid-free for archival longevity
• Successfully runs on the most demanding copiers, office machines and printing presses
• Many recycled copy papers are guaranteed to work well in copiers

Aesthetic

• High to moderate brightness levels, with pleasing light reflection
• Ranges from clean, bright whites to a wide palette of colors
• Some recycled graphic papers have specks added back in to the paper to achieve custom design effects

Availability

• Available in virtually every grade of paper
• Most printers, paper distributors, and retail outlets have some recycled paper on their shelves
• Choices are even greater if you order recycled paper ahead of time

Financial

• Many are the best buy or evenly priced with nonrecycled, especially letterhead, matching envelopes, business cards, brochures, and many coated papers
• When recycled papers cost more, price differentials are usually quite small
• Buying in larger quantities and planning ahead further reduces or eliminates price premiums on recycled paper

Environment

• Saves trees, energy, water, and landfill space compared to virgin paper
• Protects forests, watersheds, ecosystems
• Produces less pollution than virgin paper production
• Offers environmental savings many times over, since fibers can be recycled repeatedly
• Needs less bleaching than virgin papers; reduces use of toxic chemicals
• Concentrates inks, chemicals and other potential hazards for responsible management, instead of releasing them as do landfilling and incineration
• Incorporates full-cycle production costs, unlike virgin paper which includes no responsibility for its eventual disposal costs

The Future

• Creates strong, ongoing markets for local community recycling collection systems
• Provides the foundation of an environmentally sustainable paper production system (even when papers are tree-free, chlorine-free or produced through certified sustainable forestry)

This is probably the single easiest change that any organization can make to have a significant impact on their carbon footprint and environmental impact of operations.  The only change is the choice that is made the next time you order paper.  It’s just that easy. If you want to put in a little due diligence prior to making that purchase, contact your printer vendor and confirm which types, grades and weights of recycled paper are acceptable for use in your machines.  You’ll be surprised at the variety.

Ultimately, these are choices which an organization must make.  There are a LOT of ways to reduce environmental impact through an organization’s printing policy.  From restricted print queues to the elimination of personal desktop printers to duplex enforcement and beyond.  It really becomes a question of value and willingness, but if your organization hasn’t made these simple changes, then there is no time like the present, because they cost nothing or next to it, and yield only positive results for your organization.

(Green Retail – Business Alignment for a Cleaner Future will be updated monthly with a new Part focusing on areas in which small changes can yield large rewards for both the company as well as the planet.)