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It’s the start of a new year and whilst everyone else is resolving to do new things this year, we decided to give you 4 printing habits to break instead. As an established managed print services company, we see lots of different workflows in lots of different corporate environments.
Every day, the average office worker uses 45 sheets of paper. Half of this is waste.
According to ‘WRAP Green Office: A Guide to a more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable office’, every day the average office needs to use 16 sheets of paper per person.
Here are 4 popular habits you should break this year to reduce the amount of printing waste that you contribute to the office recycling bin each day.
Habit 1 – Mindlessly printing the full document or page
Emails and web pages typically have adverts, hyperlinks down a side menu, over-sized and unnecessary images, signatures, maybe an ad for the email server, and probably a disclaimer or legal notice of some kind. There may even be an extensive email trail.
When you choose to print an email, choose the number of pages to print and only print those that you need.
Habit 2 – Using default printer settings
If you can’t change the printer default, change your own default and before you hit ‘print’, choose to print both sides, or print two sides to a page. This doesn’t usually dramatically change the usability of the document but will massively reduce the amount of paper and ink you use.
Habit 3 – Printing copies for meeting attendees
Unless there’s an established rule that you should print copies for everyone, shift the burden to the attendees. Send your documents ahead digitally, asking everyone to review your prep in advance and ensure they can access a copy in the meeting. Many of them may choose to access the document digitally.
Failing that, take your own digital copy that can be sent to a screen in the meeting room. Not only do you reduce the amount of unnecessary printing, you’ll also reduce the time and effort that preparing for a meeting takes you, and you’ll look super-organised in front of your colleagues.
Habit 4 – Printing your calendar off each day
Unless you really aren’t in control of your own diary, print off your diary at the start of the week, and add or change appointments as needed with a red pen. You may be surprised how rarely changes are actually made and you’ll find this approach will save you time too.
To understand more about how ASL’s Managed Print Services can help you save money and save the environment, contact us on 0345 305 2618.
Statistics taken from ‘WRAP Green Office: A Guide to a more Cost-effective and environmentally sustainable office’.