Most businesses need to print from time to time, some more than others. If a business does not bother to come up with a sustainable printing plan, then it could end up doing more harm than needed to the environment. A sustainable business needs to balance their printing needs against their environmental footprint. Implementing sustainable printing practices within your business is key to long term success.
Integrate Into The Larger Business Strategy
Unfortunately, many businesses are not able to simply stop printing altogether and go paperless. However, when sustainability is integrated into your mission statement or business strategy, it allows everybody involved to become better aligned with broader corporate goals – both environmentally and economically. Implementing a new sustainable program takes teamwork and experience. Here are some ideas for how you can do this:
Go For E-Documents Over Paper
You don’t always need to print, so go for E-documents over paper. Use scan to email technology to distribute documents electronically and store your scanned documents somewhere safe. If you really need to print something out, then you should work with a sustainable printing service or use recycled paper. Look for a HP Designjet repair, sales, and service if you need a trustworthy business to take care of any printing and printer needs for you.
Looking into recycled paper if you do need to do any office printing is key. Your paper or stock choice can make a huge difference in how sustainable your printing method is. There’s a lot of choice, so it’s easy to get confused. Using recycled paper is amazing, but also bear in mind that the fibres degrade after a few uses. If you’re going to use newer paper, make sure the fresh fibres used in production are from sustainably managed forests.
Encourage Sustainable Habits Within The Workplace
Employee behaviour is one of the most important factors in your sustainability plan. By implementing a training and education programme, you’ll familiarise your employees with procedures to help them improve their processes and achieve the performance targets that you want to set. Getting everybody on board ensures company wide changes.
Minimize Your Power Consumption
Minimize your power consumption by leasing devices that exceed the energy star ratings set by suppliers. Most modern printers are star rated and have quick startup technology, so they go to sleep when they are not in use.
Reduce Your Paper Usage
Using the paper saving feature on a printer means you can do double sided printing and lock printing and scanning. You don’t want to waste paper and ink on unnecessary reprints! If you’ve only been printing on one side of paper all of this time, then you’ve definitely wasted resources and ink. It’s never too late to swap and make sure you’re making the most of your resources.
Printing sustainably can be a minefield, as there’s so much information out there. However, providing you only print when you really need to, and that you’re using recycled inks and papers or working with an environmentally friendly company, you should reduce your footprint.