Ecological Impact of Documents
Until recently most companies have not considered the ecological impact of their office operations. One of the biggest contributors to the carbon footprint of an office is related to document output.
What Impacts The Carbon Footprint of Your Office Printing?
Office printing and copying contributes to a company’s annual footprint in many ways. Consider some of the impacts:
Paper Usage The average office worker consumes 10,000 pages of paper per year. It takes 1.2 trees to produce this paper. That means an office with 100 people will consume 100 trees per month or 6,000 trees over the next five years. This will create 142,250lbs of greenhouse gasses.
Power Usage Most printers and copiers use heat during the printing process. As a result, these devices are some of the biggest power users in the office. Generating electricity adds to the carbon footprint of an office. A 100 employee company with 40 printers and 10 copiers will use 57,600 KWh of electricity each year requiring 57,600 lbs of coal, creating 164,736 lbs of carbon emissions.
Oil Producing a new toner cartridge takes up to 3 quarts of oil. A used toner cartridge can be remanufactured up to four times, reducing the need to produce new cartridges and cutting waste in land fills.
The combined ecological impact of printing reveals that this may be a great way to reduce the carbon footprint of your office.
