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magazine
32
Environmental considerations are
firmly back on the agenda, with 46%
of European SMBs citing energy usage
as a major concern around printing
according to a recent OKI sponsored
IDCWhite Paper,
SMB Buying
Considerations for Smarter Business
Printing
.
The report, based on IDC’s latest
SMB Hardcopy Survey, puts energy
consumption at the top of green
issues for small businesses, followed by
hardware and consumables recycling,
the use of recycled paper and reduced
packaging.
Terry Laidlaw, managing director
of OKI Europe said: “Even though cost
considerations remain strong in a tough
economic environment, there is no doubt
that SMBs are pushing hard to print
greener as they look to improve their
corporate environmental performance as
well as reduce costs.”
One way to do this, he says, is to invest
in new print devices that typically use 30%
less energy than legacy devices thanks to a
series of power-saving settings.
For example, the new OKI C831 A3
colour printer uses <700w to perform
a typical operation and then moves
immediately to idle mode (<100w). After
approximately one minute without further
activity the device moves to standby
mode (<12w). After another 15 minutes of
inactivity, it switches to ‘deep sleep’ mode
(<1.0w). Finally, after 4 hours without use,
the device automatically powers off at
which point it can’t receive further jobs
(auto power off is deactivated if the device
is connected to a network).
In addition to these (user adjustable)
settings, the C831 has a ‘power save’
button on the control panel that can be
used to put the printer in and out of deep
sleep and a soft switch on the front of the
device that does the same for power off.
On the basis that printers spend as
much as 95% of the time in standby mode,
OKI estimates that the addition of deep
sleep mode on the C831 reduces overall
energy use by about 40% compared to
previous generations of device.
This sounds impressive, but for SMBs
with modest printer estates the savings
are pretty minimal. For example, the
estimated annual energy consumption
of a new OKI MC562 A4 colour MFP is
about 260Kw (£24) compared to 440Kw
(£40) for an older MC560 A4 colour MFP,
delivering an annual saving of £16.
Energy savings alone might not
warrant investment in new hardware,
but there are many other ways in which
a new device can save money. These
include 20% lower toner consumption;
paper-saving automatic two-sided
printing; software tools to monitor usage,
allocate costs and assign print rules; PIN
release and secure print features that
can reduce paper waste and protect
sensitive data; and improved print quality
and functionality that could allow
a company to bring more print jobs
in-house.
To help SMEs work out the savings
they can make, the white paper
includes advice on how to assess an
existing print capability and identify
savings that can be made through
smarter purchasing.
The report can be downloaded from
www.oki.co.uk/IDC-White-Paper.
Printers
Energy reduction tops
green printing list
EPEAT standard extended
to printers
Energy savings a big priority for printer buyers,
but how significant are they really?
Printer buyers have a new green standard to take note
of following an extension of the Electronic Product
Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) to cover
printers, copiers, MFPs and scanners.
Originally introduced for PCs and displays, EPEAT
assesses the green credentials of electronic products; awards
qualifying devices a Gold, Silver or Bronze rating; and
publishes a registry of compliant products at www.epeat.net.
At launch, the registry included equipment from Canon,
Dell, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Ricoh and Xerox. Two other
manufacturers – Konica Minolta and Samsung – have begun
the process of registering products.
EPEAT rates products on a lifecycle basis, addressing
the elimination of toxic substances, the use of recycled
and recyclable materials, their design for recycling, product
longevity, energy efficiency, corporate performance and
packaging.
To be included on the EPEAT registry, an imaging device
must meet at least 33 required environmental performance
criteria. Products can achieve higher ratings by meeting up
to 26 additional optional criteria.
At the time of going to press, the
registry of imaging
products listed 181 US
models, 15 Canadian
products and 2 Australian
ones.
Canon extends inkjet recycling
Following successful year-long trials in the
UK and Germany, Canon has rolled out its
free inkjet cartridge recycling scheme to
13 additional European countries, including
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden
and Switzerland. The zero-landfill process
recycles 97% of each cartridge and uses
the remaining 3% to generate energy.
www.canon-europe.com/recycling
Sustainable document management
Banner Business Services has launched a sustainable records
management service encompassing secure off-site storage and
archiving of paper documents; scanning, indexing and data capture;
on-site records management services; shredding; and the conversion
of waste paper into 100% recycled Closed Loop paper. The latter is a
fully audited service in which waste paper is shredded, recycled and
returned to its original ‘owner’ as 100% recycled copier paper. Banner
already supplies Closed Loop paper to a number of commercial
and public sector organisations including Virgin Media, McDonalds,
HMRC, the Department for Transport (DFT), Home Office and Defra.
www.bannerclosedloop.co.uk
www.thedocumentwarehouse.com
in brief...