Sustainable Printing

A while back on Sustainable Printing, I introduced my readers to GreenPrint, a technology that saves unwanted pages from being printed from the internet.  Earlier this summer, GreenPrint Technologies came out with GreenPrint Version 2.0, which promises to be a large improvement over the previous program.

As detailed in this article from the New York Times, GreenPrint has had its time of hardship and struggle.  While the idea of reducing print pages from the web is brilliant and desperately needed, it wasn’t as easy as the founders of GreenPrint had hoped.  The first version was slow and often, people would turn the program off because they didn’t want to have to wait so long to print.  Because of this and other technical issues, GreenPrint had a hard time landing contracts with large corporations.

There was one company, however, that decided to partner with GreenPrint in a unique way.  Xerox has been including one free copy of GreenPrint software with the purchase of any of their solid-ink printers.  I also wrote a post on Xerox’s ColorCube being an eco-friendly alternative to office inkjets.  Coupling solid-ink technology and GreenPrint software, an office can greatly reduce its environmental impact from printing.

Even if you don’t buy a Xerox solid-ink printer, you can download a free copy of GreenPrint World for home use at printgreener.com.  For more features and usability, GreenPrint Home Premium is available for $29 per license, and GreenPrint Enterprise is available for businesses.

I encourage you to try GreenPrint as an eco-friendly way to reduce your printing.

A few years before starting Sustainable Printing, I worked for what was then FedEx Kinkos (now FedEx Office).  I can’t say my time spent with that company was filled with joy and laughter.  I was turned off by the corporate policies and politics that didn’t allow me to best serve our customers.  I was recruited by a local competitor after a little over a year with FedEx Kinkos and have remained with this company ever since (just had my 4 year anniversary with them!)

My current employer started going the sustainable route about 2 years ago, and it has been a wonderful process to be a part of.  Being exposed to the processes and procedures involved in being a sustainable company has led me to view other companies’ efforts (or lack of efforts) with a somewhat critical eye.  Now I find myself having to give some kudos to my former employer.

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In my almost 9 years in the print industry, I haven’t had too much hands-on experience with Neenah Paper.  Most of Neenah’s stock choices are primarily used on offset presses, although they are expanding their selection of digital press papers.  Since I’ve worked mainly in digital print shops that didn’t offer Neenah Paper selections, I was excited to hear about Neenah’s Do You Love Linen promotion.

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I’ve recently started to dabble in social networking with Linked In.  I’m quite behind the times right now without a Facebook or Twitter account, but you can see my Linked In profile here.

One of my LI groups is Girls Who Print, which is just a fun gathering of women from all areas of the print industry.  One of the members posted a link to an article titled Electronic vs. Printed Communication:  The Sustainability Battle, and I wanted to share it with you.

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Sometimes, in order to get real change to happen, one has to force the issue.  That’s what the Solid Waste Commission for one Iowa county is doing.

According to this article, businesses will no longer be allowed to throw out office paper. Instead, businesses using the Ottumwa/Wapello County Landfill will be recycling their paper along with their cardboard.  Cardboard was also banned from the landfill about 18 months ago.

I think this is a smart move and wish more municipalities would institute such bans.  Unfortunately, we still live in a society that, for the most part, won’t take recycling seriously if it isn’t convenient.  For some people/companies, the greatest way to motivate change to environmentally friendly practices is to enforce penalties for not doing so.  Not the ideal situation, but a great start anyway!

Photo Credit:  Flickr user alex_lee2001