Green Printing
In the 2010 winter term, a group of students from the Sustainability and the Campus course studied ways to reduce printing by students on campus. They focused on helping instructors reduce the paper used by the students in their classes.
The resulting Green Printing website provides information about their research and offers tips and instructor information.
Re-evaluate Printing
We've been talking about a paperless office for years now, but the end goal seems as elusive as ever. Printing continues to consume resources—paper, ink/toner and power—needlessly. Today, technology offers many alternatives to printing. See below for ways your unit can implement some of these.
Use Recycled Paper
If you've ever wondered how much using recycled paper really helps the environment, you'll want to check out the Paper Calculator from the Environmental Paper Network. This handy tool allows you to compare specific papers or paper groups to see how they compare with regard to wood use, energy use and a host of other environmental measures.
You can purchase recycled paper from M-marketsite. Consult the Green Purchasing guidelines and view the various recycled paper options.
Consolidate Printers
Consolidating printers into fewer, more robust, shared printers or multi-function devices can save money, reduce power consumption and help the environment.
Managed Print Services (MPS) is a new U-M service from Procurement Services that can help you evaluate how you can save.
Set Defaults
By setting the defaults on your printers, you can help your users make good choices. Here are some suggested defaults:
- Double-sided (duplex) printing
- Black and White (on color printers)
Change Your Area's Standard Practices
Some things are not easily managed using technology, but by setting departmental standards, you can make even more progress.
- Use narrower margins to use less paper
- Use a more efficient font to save toner. Century Gothic has been shown to be an efficient font.
- Always view documents in Print Preview to prevent those "oops" moments requiring a second printing.
- Limit the use of handouts at meetings; display the agenda on a screen instead or ask attendees to print the agenda if they want to use it to take notes.