25.08.2010

IT managers recognise their companies could do a better job encouraging green printing policies largely through employee education, reports Envido.

Efforts to make printing policies more efficient are happening slowly at best in the UK, wasting huge amounts of resources and obstructing IT managers' attempts to restraint in energy and paper use, according to a survey conducted by research firm Loudhouse on behalf of Kyocera and carried out with 1,000 U.K. office workers.

The survey found that the paper use of the average employee is 10,000 sheets of paper per year, and as many as 6,800 of those sheets are thrown away or recycled. On top of unneeded printing, the survey found employees feeling less concerned about the environment and printing more often. Only 68% of respondents said they were personally concerned about the environment in this year's survey, down from a high of 77% in 2008.

Apart from a drop in environmental concern, 70% of IT managers surveyed said that their companies could do a better job encouraging workers to print smarter, largely through employee education about the cost benefits of more efficient printing. They recognized that communicating with employees about environmental initiatives could make a real difference.
IT managers also remarked that printing issues constitute a huge time-suck for them, with the average IT department spending one-third of its time on dealing with office printing, and nearly one-quarter of respondents say they spend 50 to 100% of their time on printing.

Duplex and colour versus black-and-white are the most common printing policies embraced by companies

Nevertheless, IT managers see progress happening in encouraging greener printing policies, with 40% saying they are getting more executive support in putting green printing on the IT agenda, incorporating environmental policies into the network, and encouraging workers to print less.

According to the survey, a number of green printing policies are becoming more common in corporate offices. In-office recycling is commonplace, with 78% of companies encouraging paper recycling including the ubiquitous email footers urging you to "Consider the environment before printing this message", which have made their way into 55% of the companies surveyed.

Loose policies governing duplex and colour versus black-and-white are the most common printing policies embraced by companies. Although, only 22% of firms have implemented password- or card-controlled printing, which allow IT or office managers to track paper and printer use on an individual basis.

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