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Printing certainly isn’t the first thing you think of when it comes to sustainability, but like all industries and things that exist today, printing needs to adapt to the requirements of the climate crisis to secure a place in tomorrow’s world. And while a paperless environment may work for some, printers generally remain a necessity in many job functions, spanning many if not most industries.
So, what role can printers play in the road to net zero? It’s a complicated technology of multiple components and materials that consumes electricity, ink, and paper, each representing a valuable resource for the planet.
While the pursuit to net zero is only really just starting to take off, its long been at play by some technology manufacturers.
If you’ve printed something that comes out ‘nice and warm’, did you ever stop to think why or how it was coming out warm?
There are two main print technologies in the market: inkjet and laser. They may look similar on the outside, but they are not the same as one another. Laser has several steps in the printing process, requiring great amounts of heat in order to successfully print. Not only does this consume greater energy, emitting more CO2 emissions, but the laser has more, bigger consumables, bringing a larger footprint to the recycling process.
Meanwhile, heat-free inkjet technology works in a totally different way. It’s a quick and simple process that uses ink ejection to fire ink from the printhead and requires no heat in the printing process.
Research from Epson and the University of Cambridge has found that a worldwide switch to inkjet could deliver global electricity savings in excess of 2,240 GWh per year, equivalent to approximately 1.3 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year. Or for better context, that’s 280,175 cars driven for one year, 353 wind turbines running for a year, or 3,053,033 barrels of oil consumed a year.
Surely therefore the pressure of climate change is shifting customers away from laser?
The truth is that laser is the legacy technology, and like all legacies, change doesn’t happen overnight, particularly when people have become very experienced at making business from it.
According to research from Deloitte, 49% of British consumers fail to be influenced by the environmental impact of goods because they did not come across information about its environmental impact. The challenge I think customers face is establishing what environmental messaging is real, true, and relevant to their business.
Calculating the environmental savings of a printer
In response to this consumer conundrum, Carbon and Epson have introduced the Optimisation Calculator, and reporting tool that compares the electricity, waste, time, and costs of inkjet versus laser, all based on manufacturer’s data and independently verified by Industry analysts DataMaster Lab.
The road to net zero must be held accountable to quantifiable reporting at every turn. If we can’t measure sustainability then we cannot control it, and the Optimisation Calculator is a great example of how we can achieve this through print. Basing a printer purchasing decision purely on speeds, feeds, costs, and indeed good relationships, leaves so much to be answered for, particularly from companies where IT, CSR, and Finance are all asking for justification on business investments.
So, the next time you print something and it comes out warm, stop to think about one small change you can make for your businesses road to net zero.
Ryan Green – Carbon Group
ryan@carbon-group.co.uk
