When you think about ways in which your business can act sustainably today, you have many options at your disposal including conserving energy, reducing paper waste and using recycled paper to name a few. However, did you know that your wide format printer is also a good place to look if you are interested in positively impacting the environment through reduced energy consumption and ozone emissions? If you'd like to learn just how your wide format printer can do this, read below.
Sustainable Wide Format Printing
Don't assume that all wide format printers carry the ENERGY STAR® Certification. Many do, but to confirm whether or not yours does, go to the ENERGY STAR website. The ENERGY STAR program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration promotes the manufacturing and marketing of energy-efficient equipment. The ENERGY STAR means that the equipment purchased makes use of specific power management techniques to prevent unnecessary power consumption and offer economical and environmental benefits. http://downloads.energystar.gov/bi/qplist/image_equip_prod_list.pdf.
Look for a manufacturer whose products are ENERGY STAR qualified, which will not only impact your companies' profits through reduced energy consumption, but positively impact the environment as well.
Recycled content
In addition to the ENERGY STAR certification, look closely at the printers' specs and how much power it consumes both while it's operating and in sleep mode. Some devices run "hot" to stay ready when you need it to print, but considering your wide format printer is idle most of the day, all this time the printer is running it is burning precious energy. Also, consider the amount of time it takes for a machine to warm up before printing. This warm up time not only uses excess energy to get ready to print, but it also wastes your time because you have to wait for the prints to come out. Some devices can take upwards of 5 minutes to warm up before they are ready to print. There are devices today that use instant on technology, meaning that the printer sits in sleep mode burning energy on par with a small light bulb, but as soon as you submit a print, it's ready to go. This positively impacts both the environment and your productivity.
Also, closely investigate how much ozone is emitted from your printer. Because you'll work in close proximity to the device, a wide format printer that emits more ozone may cause eyes to water or create an odor in your office.
All too often when we hear the term recycled as it relates to printing, we tend to only think about recycled paper and media. Although increasing the use of recycled media is a great way to have a positive impact on the environment, there are other meanings to the term recycled when it comes to wide format printers. Look to manufactures whose printers follow some sort of "asset recovery" recycled procedure for returned equipment. These companies will typically reuse or recycle the vast majority of the equipment at the end of their life span. Potentially every part of the machine is either reused or recycled so it does not end up in a landfill.
Also, consult these independent industry websites as potential sources of information on the subject of Wide Format Printers:
To learn more about wide format color and black and white printing, download the Free Wide Format Printer Buyer's Guide.
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