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Making a case for Green Printing

Green printing can lead to substantial cost savings if implemented in a planned manner. By Jasmine Desai

One might not think much when clicking on the print button and taking a printout about how much energy was consumed in the process. This leads us to question how aware Indian enterprises are when it comes to the concept of Green Printing? Is it just a buzzword or is it morphing into reality, albeit slowly.

What CIOs say

A green initiative is a responsibility be it social or corporate and green printing is related to a movement where we can make use of recycled paper and reduce the quantum of resources related to printing. Most CIOs seem to give a hearty nod there and everyone has a practical perspective on the situation. The approach to green can be multi-dimensional depending on the size and what needs to be achieved. According to Ramnath Iyer, Chief Technology Officer, CRISIL, “It is an important component of a green IT initiative. Green printing can bring value directly to the organization and its adoption will only increase in coming years as it would be among the most talked about initiatives within green IT.” Looking at the nature of CRISIL’s business which is dealing with data, the company’s print volumes are on the higher side. This brings green printing to the top of the company’s overall green strategy.

Speaking on the practical side of things, Tejas Shah, Head-Information Technology, Axis Asset Management Company Limited, commented, “We have taken it on a priority basis internally among our employees. We have deployed many online applications to minimize the use of paper.”

So how does one start on this journey? According to Subhasish Saha, CTO, Apeejay Surrendra Group, “When it comes to green printing, you should start with simple steps. The first one could be to talk to people about what is easily understood.” Three years back, Apeejay used to have lot of individual printers, now it uses a network printer. Apart from guys who are on CXO level, everyone has to use the network printer.

Vendor side story

"CIOs are looking for products that consume less power and are easy to recycle at the end-of-life." Vipin Tuteja Executive Director, Technology Channels & International Business, Xerox India Limited

Vipin Tuteja, Executive Director, Technology Channels & International Business Xerox India Limited said, “Corporate India is warming up to green technologies for business competitiveness and cost efficiency. Though this paradigm shift is primarily driven by cost reduction needs in all segments; however, today CIOs are looking ahead for products that consume less power and are easy to recycle at the end-of-life.” Therefore, in this process of ushering in a green revolution within their system, they are not only increasing productivity but also building up a case of being responsible to the environment and enabling sustainable growth.

CIOs today understand the importance of green products and it makes business sense to deploy the same. They have realized that the impact on the environment can be minimized with the improvement of business practices. Most of these can be identified simply by looking around the office and evaluating how workers use paper documents.

According to Bhaskar Joshi, Marketing Manager, Office Imaging Solutions, Canon, “Three years back it was more of a CSR activity. Currently, the CIOs of the top 500 companies are taking it seriously.”

According to Ram Prasad, Deputy General Manager - Consumer Products, Epson India, “People have different perceptions about what green printing is all about.”

In research conducted worldwide by Xerox on office automation it was found that:

• The average office worker prints 10,000 pages per year and wastes 1,410 pages.
• The average cost of a wasted page is six cents
• A company with 500 employees spends $42,000 on wasted prints per year
• Only 49% office workers said that they recycled at work

Technological advances

"Printer vendors have implemented this technology on both the hardware & the software front." Amrita Choudhury Research Analyst, Gartner

“Printer vendors are aware of what is happening in the market and have taken steps towards that and have implemented this technology on their devices, on both on the hardware as well as the software front,” said Amrita Choudhury, Research Analyst, Gartner. On the hardware part, the device is recycled. Parts like cartridges are reusable. The devices are manufactured from an energy management standpoint and their energy consumption is less than that of preceding generations. Presently, most Multi Function Devices (MFDs) have duplex printing available as an option. Color access management is another feature available on a device so that employees can go for monochrome printouts. Also, printers and multi-function devices have to be energy compliant and, to this end, they go for Energy Star certification.

On the software side, there are a lot of applications that can reduce the need for printing such as having a scan or soft copy of the document. These may not be direct initiatives for green printing but these are technologies that help reduce print levels, which in turn contributes to the green printing initiative.

Saving paper is a vital component in any green printing initiative. Duplex printing is a technology that can help here and it has been in India for five years but has not gained the acceptance that it should have.

Another buzzword in the printing market is that of Managed Print Services (MPS). According to Bhaskar Joshi, Manager - Marketing, Office Imaging Solutions Division, Canon India, “Right now 20% of printouts are not claimed at the end of the day. That is actual wastage and it has an adverse impact upon the environment in terms of energy consumption and paper wastage.” This has led print vendors to come up with innovations in the area of MPS. The latest one is called secured printing. In this set-up, the printout will not be generated unless the user authenticates either through pin number or a swipe card.

Managed printing has its own limitations. MPS is typically the preserve of large corporations. The major reason being that it requires a high volume of printing to justify the cost of whichever provider an organization chooses to go with. At the SMB level, it becomes unviable as the model is based on European or US market’s needs.

Upgrading machines can help reduce energy consumption. Some examples of technology that can help here include:

• Rapid fusing technology: In a normal printer or copier, the drum is always heated so that once the printout comes, the ink sticks to the paper. This consumes a lot of energy. With the new technology, the machine immediately goes into sleep mode when not in use so that the drum is not heated continuously.
• Quick fix toners: Toners get stuck to the paper only when it is heated through a drum. Toner is basically granules. The drum is heated and toner falls on the drum and from there it gets pasted onto the paper. Quick fix toners require less heating of the drum and fixing assembly and get pasted on the paper rapidly saving energy.

Challenges on the horizon

Iyer of CRISIL said, “The biggest challenge that we face is the resistance towards green printing. People have been used to traditional ways of printing and are comfortable with the same. A change in the process brings about resistance.”

For awareness, CRISIL holds talks about green printing in the induction programs and explains the benefits of it vis-à-vis traditional printing.

Tejas added, “Still on the sales department on the client side and for regulatory institutions it is recommended to continue with legacy paper work.”

Vendors have another story to tell. Ram Prasad of Epson said, “Organizations are willing to go to any extent to reduce the cost of printing and, in the bargain, they sacrifice a lot of things including the safety aspect and create environmental damage.” Today, if an organization buys a toner or ink cartridge, the cost of printing comes to Rs 2. Refillers may claim that they are doing a favor by recycling the product, on the other end the question that comes up is, what is the chemical that they use for refilling? Is it tested for the safety aspect? There are studies that claim that there is a lot of pollution in the office environment itself due to the fumes that come from printers wherein the refill chemical properties are not known.

Saha of Apeejay Surrendra Group said, “Disposable of consumables is a gray area. There is not much effort being taken on the vendor front.” Earlier, the organization used to put disposable items in a vendor tub from where it used to go the vendor center in Kolkata. Apparently, the center has closed down now and so consumables now go with other waste.

The verdict

Green printing is not being driven as an integral initiative of an organization. It is more of a support factor. Green printing has a lot of benefits over other printing technologies. The biggest benefit of this technology is cost efficiency and a lowering of carbon footprint. Today more companies and customers are looking towards products that consume less power and are easy to recycle at the end-of-life. Green printing takes care of all of the above factors and not only adds to productivity but also builds on the responsibility towards the environment and sustainability. Hence, it is a major influence in a customer’s purchase decision.

Companies need to incorporate the latest technologies available across IT hardware and other segments in order to reduce their carbon footprint and go green. However, most companies these days are going green with a view to save costs.

Green IT as such would come under the corporate responsibility of an organization. While there are some companies that have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint, for many Indian organizations it is time to gear up on this front and vendors need to work closely with them.

jasmine.desai@expressindia.com