Eco-friendly Printing Practices

Always a hot topic in the office equipment industry, Eco-friendly printing is increasing in priority for many area businesses, including Century. As we continue to make our own office processes more “green”, we have compiled a list of tips to help your organization print with the environment in mind.

Print Only What You Need – Urge your employees to think before they print. Share statistics you can easily find online to help get your point across. Simply reducing the amount of paper printed is perhaps the simplest way to green your printing. Implore people to only print what they truly need to print.

Utilize Double-Sided Printing – By printing all of your documents on both sides of the paper, you’ll effortlessly reduce your paper use by 50%. Not only will this positively impact the environment, but you’ll cut your print budget as well. Make double-sided printing company policy, and set all printers and copiers to duplex printing mode.

Green Your Print Processes – Scan documents and work with them electronically rather than printing them. Use electronic faxing instead of the old fashioned paper method. Send memos, announcements, employee handbooks, manuals, etc. digitally, rather than providing hard copy versions.

Use Green Office Equipment- Printers and copiers that are ENERGY STAR qualified use 30-75% less electricity than standard equipment. These products use less energy to perform regular printing and copying tasks, and when not in use, a low-power mode is automatically enabled. Cutting down on energy used will also help keep your company’s utility costs down.

Toner Yields Matter– Products with higher toner yields will generate significantly less waste over the life of your product. Find out from your supplier the yields you can expect and make sure not to change out toner cartridges too early.

Laser over ink– While typically cheaper to buy, inkjet printers are not only slower than their laser counterparts, they also end up costing significantly more to run due to expensive supply costs and low toner yields. Unfortunately, these low yields also create more waste for the environment.

Get the Contract– Keeping up with proper maintenance enables the product to last longer. A maintenance contract will ensure your equipment is running at its best, helping to extend the product’s life.