I once printed a 47 page document and incorrectly threw the whole thing in the recycling bin. Nobody seemed to care that I had wasted all that paper, and I had no idea that I had been wasting so much paper in the first place.
There is also a cost to printing in an office that few realize they are paying. This is the cost of the printing itself, the toner, paper, the electricity for the printers, and the occasional service call to get the printer out of trouble. Often these costs are invisible, so they are often ignored. But for medium-sized companies these costs can add up to be a nasty surprise for the finance department.
The obvious fix nobody actually does consistently
Duplex printing. Double-sided. It is a function that is standard on most printers in the market today for over a decade now. It amazes me how many workplaces around the world print single-sided as if it were 1998. It doesn’t matter that you have expensive color printers near the kitchen. Flip the default to double-sided on all the printers in your office. Simple. Easy. Low effort. Big impact. Halve your paper usage overnight. Set it as the default. Not a suggestion. Not a laminated poster in the break room that everyone walks past without reading. The default.
Set duplex printing as the default, no, make it the default. I mean it. Print out a laminated sign and stick it up in the kitchen for all to see. I mean ignore. That’s what you’re doing now. No, actually make duplex printing the default. It’s a matter of minutes and it costs nothing. Set it up and then forget it.
(As an aside, I am astounded that no IT manager has yet to implement duplex printing as default printing. It would take about four minutes to do and cost nothing).
You can’t fix what you can’t see
It is also surprising how many organizations have no idea how much printing is actually going on within the organization. Trying to work out ways to reduce fuel costs when you have no idea how many kilometers any one person is traveling in their car or whether someone has left the engine running in a car park is difficult. The same is true for print costs.
Most modern print management software (PMS) comes equipped with a print volume tracker. This will give you an idea of just how much your office is printing and where it is happening. Often, simply showing people how much they are printing and where it is happening is enough to reduce usage. Many companies make this data public, such as displaying the number of pages printed by department. When a company does implement a print volume tracker the typical response is one of first of shock, then horror and then action.
BLOCKPLACEHOLDER
- Which departments are the heaviest users (and whether that actually maps to their work needs)
- How many jobs are printed but never collected from the printer tray
- Whether color printing is being used for internal documents that absolutely don’t need it
- Peak printing hours, which can help you schedule maintenance and manage device loads
4. The printer itself is important.
Older printers are energy hungry. Even when powered down, the printer still consumes power to keep the printer in standby. Some newer printers have power down functionality that reduces power consumed while printer is in sleep mode. When purchasing a new printer for the office, look for energy efficient printers. Select a printer that is the right size for the number of people in the office who are required to print. A large printer in a small office will waste energy while a small printer in a large office will wear out quickly as it will be subjected to a large volume of printing.
Look for energy efficient printers with motors designed to draw minimal power while operating. When looking for a new printer, find out how much energy the printer will consume while in sleep mode and look for a printer rated for your work volume. Note that handling paper of the wrong size can also increase energy usage. Printing with oversized paper on a printer designed for low volume of work in an office will continue to use large amounts of energy night and day. This can cost your business a lot of money and wear out the smaller device much faster than oversized counterparts. Find the right printer for your needs.
Here is an example of how purchasing the right printer could save money in comparison to the older model:
| Device type | Best for | Energy profile | Cost per page (approx.) |
| Entry-level inkjet | Very low-volume, small teams | Low idle draw, slower warm-up | Higher |
| Mid-range laser | General office use | Moderate, good sleep modes | Medium |
| High-volume MFP | Large teams, mixed print needs | Higher but distributed across volume | Lower at scale |
What happens to the cartridge after?
Used to be that when a printer cartridge ran out of ink or toner, it would be thrown in the bin and go to landfill. But all cartridges these days are recyclable. So, set up a cartridge return program. It can be through your supplier of your devices or set up through a 3rd party recycler. It takes about 5 minutes to set up, and then it cost nothing after that. Some suppliers will even collect your empty cartridges for free. So, there is no excuse for not doing this.
- Contact your toner supplier about their take-back program
- Place a clearly labeled collection box near each printer
- Schedule a regular pickup or drop-off — quarterly works fine for most offices
The used toner cartridges that you have used can be recycled – but of course very few are. That’s to take real cartridges out of landfill and costs almost nothing to do. You can arrange for return of used cartridges as part of the purchase price of new cartridges through your supplier or through a third party recycler. Some even collect the used cartridges for free.
Reducing printing isn’t about banning printing
My greatest frustration in business with regards to printing is that most companies either ignore the problem or proclaim a ‘paperless office’ and have it all collapse in a heap 6 months later. It’s really not that hard to create default print settings, to track print volume, to use energy efficient devices or to setup a return program for used cartridges. It’s all relatively simple and requires very little effort on an ongoing basis.
The thing to remember when trying to cut downsize printing is that you’re trying to reduce printing, not cease it altogether. Printing is a core function of a workplace. Reducing the amount of printing that is done at work will require some easy changes to the default printing settings on the printers at work, as well as ways to track printing as well as a suitable and realistic range of printers. There should also be an easy way to recycle printing. This is not a job for the Sustainability Consultant at your workplace.
And lastly, I accept that there will be some occasions when 47 pages of the wrong version of a document is required to be printed. While no one wants to do this, it is a natural part of human nature and must be allowed to occur. So the goal of this project is to make the sensible thing to do (i.e. not printing such a large amount of paper) the easiest thing for people to do.