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Print Sustainability: Eco-Friendly Printing Strategies for the Modern Office

You see it in many offices today. Printers pumping out documents for meetings, proposals, reports, and everything in between. Large paper volumes are part of the operational costs, so for many organizations, print sustainability seems impossible.

However, with companies prioritizing waste and carbon footprint reduction, print sustainability pushes its way to the top of to-do lists. Don’t get left behind.

Environmentally responsible and sustainable print practices that help the environment while saving your company money aren’t out of reach. Plus, implementing these practices won’t have to disrupt your office workflow. 

So, what do you think? Are you ready to introduce print sustainability practices to your office? 

We’ll get into how you and your team can build a print sustainability program in your office. First, let’s talk about a service that takes printers, paper, and toners off your hands so you can focus on running your business.

Teaming up with an environmentally-conscious and proactive print service provider like Com Pro ensures you have the right equipment for your print and copy needs. We can also guide your organization towards print sustainability using our expertise. We’ll tell you about the latest technologies and strategies for more efficient printing.

Every year an estimated 18 trees are cut down through paper use from 10 employees.

In addition to cost savings and print sustainability, Com Pro also works with PrintReleaf. The service helps offset the environmental impact of your organization’s printing through reforestation projects worldwide.

With the help of our clients, we’ve offset over 100 million printed pages through reforestation. We’ve planted 100 million pages worth of trees in the last 12 months. That’s over 12,200 trees planted in Canada, Madagascar and the Dominican Republic!

Together with our Managed IT Services, Com Pro can use technology and strategies to streamline your print processes and make your office friendlier to the environment.

Working with a proactive service like Com Pro gets you closer to print sustainability while keeping your machines running at 100%. However, you can’t overlook the choices you and your team can make every day to reduce your carbon footprint.

Let’s talk about those choices. Here are the habits that can help your company with print sustainability:

14 Habits that Contribute to Eco-Friendly Printing

  1. Use Recycled Paper – They’re a lot more common now. Buying and using recycled paper for your office shows your commitment to print sustainability.
  1. Encourage Recycling and Reusing Paper – Provide recycling bins in your printing areas. Encourage employees to reuse paper as scrap paper for notes—as long as it doesn’t contain sensitive material.
  1. Don’t Change Toner Cartridges Too Early – We often see people changing cartridges when they see 10% remaining. That’s still a lot of toner!
  1. Recycle Toner Cartridges – Once depleted, you can recycle toner cartridges at the proper facilities. Printer manufacturers even have toner recycling programs. You can use a prepaid shipping label to send to the manufacturer directly, or ask us to do it for you if you work with Com Pro as your Managed Print provider
  1. Turn Power Saving Mode On – Like a dog waiting for a treat, your printer consumes energy while waiting for a copy or print job (if only our furry friends were as patient). Practice print sustainability and turn this feature on to conserve energy when your printer is inactive.
  1. Double-Sided Printing – Reduce paper waste and save on printing costs! It’s a win-win when you print on both sides of the page.
  1. Combine Copying – The “combine copy” option will copy or print multiple pages of a document onto a single page to save paper. What a great option that contributes to print sustainability!

– Before you continue reading –

Find Out More About How We Can Help with Your IT and Print Needs

We’ll do whatever it takes to keep your office equipment and IT Infrastructure running at its best, and we maintain high standards by tracking our performance and providing full service transparency.

  1. Watch those Options – Some printers have double-sided printing and combine copying as options, but not all of them. There are many benefits to managed services. One of them is that Com Pro will use our expertise to guide your company to select the right printer that will help you take advantage of these print sustainability features.
  1. Use Printer-Friendly Formats – Little things like adjusting your margins can make you more efficient with paper.
  1. Print in Greyscale – Eliminate needless waste and save toner. Reserve your colour printing for client-facing presentations and possibly adorable pet photos. On second thought, maybe not…
  1. Activate Locked Print – Reduce unnecessary print jobs with this feature that requires users to enter a username or PIN at the printer. This setting ensures security during the printing process, reduces paper waste, and encourages print sustainability in the office.
  1. Use Economy Mode – Some eco-friendly printers will have an “economy mode” that creates lightly printed documents. Don’t worry. The printer may use less ink, but it still produces legible work.
  1. Apply New Technologies – Innovative ways that make print sustainability easier for the modern office pop up every day. It would help if you kept your eyes open to find smarter hardware light on energy and efficient with consumables.
  1. Choose an Eco-Friendly Printer – Find eco-friendly and multifunction printers that suit your business’s printing demands, budget, and goals towards print sustainability.

New technologies, efficient printing strategies, and having the proper hardware bring the goal of print sustainability closer to reality. However, we know about the challenge of managing printing in a busy office.

Com Pro’s managed print services will help you choose the perfect printer for your office. We’ll also streamline your workflow and document handling to ensure your workplace is efficient and limits paper waste.

Print sustainability is a lofty goal. However, we believe that caring for the environment is a goal worth pursuing.

Every year an estimated 18 trees are cut down through paper use from 10 employees. With your help, we can reduce those numbers through print sustainability practices, thoughtful resource management, and partnerships with reforestation programs like PrintReleaf.

Speaking of PrintReleaf, we’re focusing our reforestation efforts to projects in Canada starting in April. Join us and help make office printing more sustainable. Find out more about our Earth Day tree-planting initiative.

You can also contact Com Pro about our Managed Print Services and learn more about transforming your office with print sustainability practices.