Black and white reasons for printing green

Do you really need to print this page before reading it? Probably not – and that goes for your emails too. Unnecessary printing is hugely wasteful, yet with just a little effort, you can make a real difference. Andrew Donoghue explains more.

There are several annoying things you can rely on in any department or office. The manager who thinks they’re funny. The air-conditioner that spews Siberian air all winter.

The insidious rise of those messy heaps of paper that pile up next to the printer. Periodically removed by an invisible cleaner, those little stacks soon reappear - a nagging reminder of the waste created by our modern work patterns.

Papering over the cracks

Popular opinion once held that the introduction of the PC would eventually lead to the paperless office. Yet according to the UK environmental charity Wastewatch, when the personal computer first arrived in the 1980s, world office paper consumption was around 70 million tonnes a year. By 1997, this figure had more than doubled to around 150 million tonnes.

On the other hand, better, larger monitors and the arrival of mobile devices has seen paper usage begin to drop since the Millennium, according to research company InfoTrends. This suggests that computers are starting to live up to their promise.

Paper usage is, however, still unacceptably high. More than 120 billion sheets of paper are printed every year, and this generates around 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 – a figure that doesn't include the carbon generated by the manufacture of ink, or printers, according to environmental charity Global Action Plan.

Wasted paper isn't the only issue. Around 178 million printers, copiers and multi-function devices were shipped in 2007, according to industry analysts Gartner. Energy used and wasted by leaving printers on is still a significant contributor to the total carbon footprint of the health service. 

Switching off a printer takes seconds and might seem like a token gesture, but it's exactly these kind of small steps that will help the NHS reach its carbon reduction targets according to Dr David Pencheon, director of the NHS Sustainability Development Unit (SDU). 

YOU can make a difference

“Even if it’s not big, it’s important,” he says. “Anything that we can improve in the NHS is good. If we encourage people to take small steps, we can create a culture that gets them to appreciate the bigger things we can do."

And it will take a combination of small and big steps if the NHS is to hit the target of a 10 per cent reduction in its 2007 carbon footprint by 2015. As far as printing goes, there are a whole range of relatively simple steps that can be taken to make the whole process greener and less damaging to the environment:

• Consider whether you really need to print every email and document – and whether you couldn’t read at least some on screen. A simple notice that says: “Think before you print: do you really need to print or photocopy?” could help to remind people.
• If you really need to print, get as many pages of your document on each page of printing paper as you can, and print on both sides of the paper. Re-use paper that has only been used on one side for printing other documents or for scrap paper.
• Switch from virgin paper to recycled paper. Producing 1 tonne of recycled paper consumes 1.32 tonnes of CO2 less than producing the same amount of virgin paper, according to package recycling specialist Wrap.
• Use timer switches to turn off printers and other equipment automatically outside office hours. This saves up to two thirds of the daily energy consumption of every device that is currently left on 24 hours a day. Of course, the NHS is a 24/7 organisation, but there are plenty of offices and departments not open throughout the night.

The IT department can make a difference, too

For IT departments, there are some further steps that can be taken around buying and managing printers.

• Reduce the overall number of printers used by the organisation and replace them with multi-function devices.
• Move the printers that you have left to make them slightly more inaccessible. One company apparently moved their printers to an outside shed, forcing staff to really think before printing.
• If possible, buy new printers that automatically print on both sides of the paper; this will reduce the amount of electricity, toner and paper they use.
• Use green printing defaults wherever possible (such as double-sided and multiple-page-on-one-page printing). These devices can often be connected to the network and managed more efficiently.
• There is still a lot of debate around whether re-used printer cartridges are actually more efficient than the newly manufactured kind most printer makers support. But it definitely makes sense to dispose of them at the end of their useful life through the original manufacturer, or organisations such as Computer Aid UK and Greensource solutions.

There is plenty that can be done to reduce the amount of CO2 and wasted resources that printers and printing create. Most of these don’t have to cost money; more often than not they should actually help to save cash previously wasted on excess paper and power for idle equipment.

The hardest part is weaning ourselves off the printing habit and realising we can do without it. Learning not to print might be a struggle, but ridding your office of those annoying stacks of waste paper will be satisfying for you, and essential for the environment.