By Neil Vowles, 5 August 2008 17:01
NEWS
Paper junkie office workers are costing their companies up to 10 per cent of their turnover printing out more than 120 billion pieces of paper each year.
More than half of workers confessed to wasteful printing, according to a study by Envirowise - a government-funded programme advising businesses on sustainability.
Green IT from A to Z
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A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions
The study found each office worker, on average, uses 22 sheets of paper per day, many unnecessarily.
Chief paper waste criminals identified by the study include the 'old school printer', who can't read or comment on emails unless they're printed out, and the 'competitive printer', who spreads needlessly printed paperwork around their desk to make them look important.
Also in the dock are 'hasty printers' who print documents running to numerous pages without checking their length beforehand.
Mary Leonard, Envirowise director, said in a statement: "Most offices will find they can reduce waste costs by 20 per cent through simple low-cost actions. Measures such as double sided or multiple page printing and recycling instead of paying for disposal can really help."
Paper contributes to half of all office waste in the UK with nearly five million tonnes being binned annually.
Elaine Sharp, Envirowise marketing manager, said: "There is an awful lot of waste going on out there. The average loss of turnover just from waste is four per cent but once you factor in the cost of toner, maintenance of printers and cost of landfill then the harm to businesses can be between five and 10 per cent.
"I think we are a long way from a paperless office. The message is getting out there but the problem is that paper is the forgotten resource in business even though it can be a very simple way of saving money."
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Chas Moloney
Despite an increased awareness of the expense associated with printing and copying, companies are still are not aware of all the hidden costs. Our own recent research revealed that an astonishing 71 per cent of businesses are oblivious to print costs and I find it hard to believe that this attitude exists towards any other IT asset.
Envirowise is quite right to encourage businesses to rationalise their print strategy. The next step is to enforce these positive changes, using technology applications that give the user no choice but to print in a more secure, controlled, environmentally-friendly and cost-conscious manner.
2. Ian Cooper
You can still read paper a long time after the computers have crashed or the electricity has gone off and the UPS's have run out.
3. Rory Choudhuri
Despite every printer in our office being duplex enabled, I am probably one of only 5% of people who print on both sides of a sheet by default. Even when it's pointed out to them that they can use half the number of sheets by using this, most people can't be bothered.
4. Tracey Rawling Church
Our recent research indicates that most people accept the need to print less, but they expect the thinking to be done for them - so our advice is for network administrators to set all duplex-capable printers to print double sided as default. So then it becomes more effort to print single sided.
We also found that although 74% of people questioned claimed that their organisation operated paper reduction policies, they still considered that two thirds of the pages they printed were wasted.
86% of organisations claim to be recycling waste paper, and I suspect most people think they can print as much as they like as long as they remember to recycle the paper afterwards. But according to EnergyStar it takes 10 times as much energy to make a sheet of paper as it does to print on it. Employee education is key.
5. Martin Hughes
Does anyone has a link to the original report, I would like to read it. I've checked on Envirowise's website but can't find it. Thanks in advance.