By West McDonald, Vice President of Business Development, Print Audit & Owner, FocusMPS
Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on the topic of global warming and climate change, most people would agree that improving sustainability in the workplace is good for corporate image and environmental stewardship. In offices all over the world Green is the new Black. Ernst & Young agrees: In a report co-written with the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, they state that there are a host of values in adopting good Sustainability reporting:
- Better Reputation
- Meeting the expectations of employees
- Improved access to capital
- Increased efficiency and waste reduction.
We all want to make a difference, but where to start? How can we produce measurable sustainability metrics? Does going green have to cost me money or can it also improve my bottom line? If only there were some tools to help clarify my options. Good news! There are a host of sustainability measurement tools out there to help you create a greener office while returning valuable capital to your bottom line! We have selected 3 of them to help you get started. All are free of charge and are a great way to get started on the road to measurable sustainability for your office.
Print Audit ROI & Green Calculator: Turning green into black
Why not improve your carbon footprint AND save valuable company dollars? One of the largest contributors to carbon footprints is good-old office copying and printing. Most offices have no control measures in place for printing and the financial and environmental costs might shock you.
Below is a calculator you can use to show both the positive financial impact and greening benefits of printing more responsibly. Let’s look at some easy and highly effective targets for a medium sized company that prints 3 million pages a year:
- Moving 60% volumes from high-cost printers to existing lower-cost MFPs: You would be shocked to realize how many large jobs are printed on desktop printers. That is an expensive way to print.
- Increasing duplexed pages from zero to 50%: Another way to save paper is to use less of it by printing on both sides of the page.
- Reducing print volumes by 30%: By using a print governance tool as provided by companies like Print Audit.
Results:
The results are quite astounding: Nearly $50,000 a year in savings and significant environmental footprint reductions just by printing more responsibly!