Your Office May Not be as ‘Green’ as You Think it is!

Keeping the environment in mind in all of your business activities is a noble task.  But many offices do not realize that going green is more than just telling everyone to recycle and cut back on printing.  Behind the scenes – or even right in front of you – are opportunities to reduce your green printing and go as green as you can be.

Review the following green printing quiz to find out how green your office really can be:

1) What number of pages does the average office worker in America print each year?

• 5,000 pages
• 7,500 pages
• 10,000 pages

According to the statistics from Go Paperless, the average American office worker prints approximately 10,000 pages each year.  That is a lot of trees and chemicals to produce that paper.

2) In a normal office environment, a printed page has the typical life span of about

• Less than 2 weeks
• Less than one day
• Less than 5 minutes

MPS Insights reports that the average page life span is 5 minutes or less.  When you consider how often a page is printed, read, and then discarded this figure is probably quite accurate.

3) Laser printers require how much energy dollars to operate over a one year period?

• $100
• $225
• $300

The energy consumed by laser printers can be quite substantial, and is about $225 in the cost to power each year.  Green printing can definitely help to reduce this expense.

4) When you consider paper, packaging and consumables, how much waste is created from just one laser printer?

• 50 pounds
• 100 pounds
• 200 pounds

Over 100 pounds of waste is generated from just one laser printer.  Given that most offices have more than one laser printer that can add up to a lot in the land fill.

If you monitor your office employee printing habits, how much print reduction could you expect to see?

• 5%
• 10%
• 15%

The Print Audit Company reports that if you monitor your office employee printing through a print management solution you can expect your printing volume to drop by 10% simply by letting your departments know that their printing is being monitored.

The final question is not part of the quiz, but it says a lot about how green your office can be.

Do you have a managed print service in your office?

A managed print service will not only monitor your printing habits but also allow you more control over color printing and double-sided printing, which can save your office a lot of money while also getting even greener.

If you knew the answer to most of the questions on the quiz – congratulations on being green!  If you stumbled a bit, perhaps it’s time to take a harder look at your printing operations to get that green even more vibrant.