Going Green- Ricky the Printer
~ By Jasmine Rose
We’ve been discussing how to “go greener” during our company staff meetings this year. During one meeting, we started thinking about our use of desktop printers versus the larger company copy machine. Staff found they were relying frequently on their desktop printers because the company copy machine did not print in color, and even in black and white its print quality was grainy and grey. This brought up the functional history of the company copy machine, which was originally purchased in 2001 when we were primarily research-oriented and needed to print hundreds of copies at a time. We also found out this copy machine was about five generations old, which means that this machine model has been improved five times since its release.
I called Associated Business Systems here in Eugene, Oregon and asked for a consultation. Lesa Bergey came in and we talked about the current needs of staff, how things have changed since the purchase of the current copy machine and company goals for the future. After collecting data on the latest models I took this information to our staff meeting. Together we found there were several benefits in upgrading copy machines:
· New copy machines use less power & are more energy efficient
· New copy machines have an easy-to-use color scan & email function
· Monthly upkeep of the machine would cost less
· We could donate our current copy machine to any local non-profit of our choice
After the Director and Board of Directors approved this purchase, Lesa had the printer here within a week and a half! Staff were pleasantly surprised how beneficial this printer would be. Editorial staff can now make changes on proofs, and then can scan and email those changes. Being able to do this reduces courier costs, paper use and staff time. Marketing staff can now print quality letters and images for brochures, letters, and other forms of communication in order to promote our products. Database & order management staff can now copy and scan copies of invoices on the copy machine, thus saving on postage, paper and time. As part of accounting staff, I found I can reduce paperwork I send out by almost half, because of the color scan function.
During our new copy machine (Aficio MP C3500) training we talked with Lesa about how excited we all had been that week. She talked about how “having new toys” can raise staff morale. I had definitely seen this occur, even as we named our new copy machine, “Ricky.” The other benefit of this is that we were able to give back to the community by donating our previous copy machine to a local non-profit of our choice. Not only were we making new memories as a team, but we each were able to think more creatively about how each of our jobs and our community were affected by this purchase. We are now able to save on paper costs, ink costs, postage costs and staff time. This upgrade in technology has impacted job functioning and created more awareness for each of us when it comes to paper conservation and helping us go “greener” (yet another blog for the future).
December 19th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Have you heard of RISO? They’re rated as the MOST green printers you can get. Great for businesses looking to go green!