Is It Time To Update Your Printing Equipment?

In this digital age it is common knowledge that minimising the amount you print is something to aspire to. With emails replacing faxes and documents generally being created and shared without ever involving the intervention of a pen, business in general is shifting towards the paperless dream. It is however unavoidable that paper is still an integral tool in almost all office environments and that photocopies and printouts are essential in some cases.

As well striving to use as little paper and ink as possible (for both financial and environmental reasons) it is important that businesses also ensure that when they do print things out; that they do so in the most efficient manner possible. Recycled paper and the recycling of printer ink cartridges are a vital step towards sustainable and cost effective printing but it doesn't end there: the printer itself can make a huge contribution to not only the cost of printing a document in terms of consumable usage but also in terms of energy efficiency. Although frivolous replacement of perfectly serviceable and effective equipment should be avoided - it is sometimes the case that an investment in more up to date hardware is the best way to go. Until we begin to source more of our electricity through sustainable methods such as solar panels and wind power it is certainly important to consider the environmental repercussions of high energy consumption as well as the effect on the company's overheads.

Energy Star is an initiative which serves to promote energy efficiency in electrical devices. If a device complies with Energy Star guidelines it will generally boast a blue badge to attest to this, and as well as boasting an attractive sticker - these devices reduce the amount of energy you use compared to similar machines. Energy Star is however just a guideline, a more impressive consideration is that technology has developed so quickly that many devices which are on the market today offer power savings between 20 and 30% compared to their counterparts of 2 years ago. If the printer you've been using is 15 years old then just consider how much less power a new device will require in order to do the same job!

In order to further reduce electricity usage by your office printing equipment it is often worth looking at multi-functional devices. As opposed to having separate scanners, printers and photocopiers plugged in all day; consider a multi-functional device. Multi-functional printers are incredibly affordable to buy, utilise modern ink efficient systems and replace 3 plugs in the wall with just one. Not only do these all-in-one printers mean you're powering one piece of equipment rather than three - they also often use less electricity than any given one of the machines they replace.

Many modern printers don't even require a computer in order to print. The energy consumption of even modern laptops can be expensive, investment in a printer which is able to print directly from memory cards of USB flash drives can do away with the need to turn a computer on just to print a document - and also save a great deal of time.

Modern printing equipment is leagues ahead of that produced more than 5 years ago and given the lower cost of purchase and ink replacement, these machines pay for themselves considerably faster than many realise; whilst also helping to reduce a company's carbon footprint without compromising on practicality.