Sustainable Printing Practices for Modern Businesses

Three core sustainable printing practices are default duplex printing, secure print release, and shared multifunction devices. Energy efficient equipment that is responsibly recycled at end of life completes the set.

Secure print release stops abandoned jobs piling up in output trays. Consolidating personal desktop printers into shared devices usually cuts both energy use and consumable waste.

Smart printer leasing choices support each of these practices, because leased devices are serviced through the term and can be refreshed at the end of it.

This guide covers what sustainable printing means for an office, ten practices that cut waste, and how to measure the result.

What is sustainable printing in an office?

Sustainable printing means producing only the pages you need, on efficient equipment, and recycling what is left.

In an office, the environmental footprint comes from four places: paper, toner and ink cartridges, the energy the printer uses, and the device itself at end of life.

Paper is the part staff control most directly, so most eco friendly printing practices start by cutting the number of sheets.

Our managed print services help organisations see where pages go through usage reporting by device and user.

Those reports drive the waste side as much as the cost side.

Consolidating devices and setting duplex as the default cuts both pages and cartridges before anything reaches a recycling stream.

Businesses working through that locally can see print usage tracking for Esperance businesses and print usage reporting in Ellenbrook.

Ten sustainable printing practices for the office

1. Make duplex the default

Automatic duplex printing puts two sides on one sheet on any job longer than one page, as our duplex printing entry explains.

2. Switch on secure print release

Jobs only print when the owner is at the device, so forgotten pages stop going straight into the bin.

3. Consolidate desktop printers

One shared multifunction printer usually uses less energy and fewer consumables than several small personal printers.

4. Default to mono

Set black and white as the default and let staff choose colour when a job needs it.

5. Scan instead of copy

Scan to email or a shared folder replaces many photocopies with a digital file.

6. Choose an efficient device

ENERGY STAR certified models carry a published Typical Electricity Consumption figure, in kilowatt hours per week, so a shortlist can be compared on power draw.

7. Use sleep mode

Set the printer to sleep quickly when idle, and schedule it to power down outside business hours.

8. Buy recycled or certified paper

Recycled content paper reduces the demand for new fibre, and paper with a Forest Stewardship Council label is traced to certified sources.

9. Recycle cartridges

Return used toner cartridges through the manufacturer's take back program or a cartridge recycling collection point.

10. Retire devices responsibly

Have the hard drive wiped, then send the printer back through the supplier for refurbishment or recycling.

What makes a printer eco friendly?

An eco friendly printer uses little energy when idle, prints duplex automatically, and needs fewer consumable parts over its life.

Kyocera ECOSYS technology is particularly noteworthy, featuring long life drums that are separate from the toner cartridge, so they are not replaced at every toner change, which reduces consumable waste.

Those long life drums matter most where service visits take longer to arrange. A regional example: a Kyocera printer lease in Kempsey includes the drum and toner in the monthly amount, so the low waste consumable design and the servicing sit under one agreement.

For shared office printing, a laser printer usually suits better than a desktop inkjet, because a toner cartridge usually prints more pages than a standard ink cartridge, so fewer cartridges reach the recycling stream.

How to measure your printing footprint

Start with a baseline: pages printed per month, the share in colour, and the share printed duplex.

Most multifunction printers report these counts, and print management software can break them down by user and department.

Track the same figures every quarter, and set a target such as a higher duplex share or fewer pages per staff member.

Our guide to printing sustainability reporting shows which figures belong in an annual report.

Green printing claims: what to check before you believe them

Words like sustainable printing, green printing and eco friendly printing are easy to use and hard to prove.

Ask a supplier which part of the environmental impact a claim covers: paper, energy, consumables or end of life.

Ask for the figure behind it, such as a published energy figure, a recycled content percentage or a take back program you can use.

A carbon footprint figure should say what it includes and the period it measures.

The ACCC's guidance for business on environmental claims asks for exactly this kind of precision.

Benefits of sustainable printing for a business

Fewer pages lower your paper spend, and fewer cartridges lower your waste.

Cutting paper and cartridge use lowers the consumable volume your organisation sends to recycling. Understanding the benefits of printer leasing and printer lease pricing across Australian device tiers helps you build a defensible business case for sustainable equipment.

Clients and staff increasingly ask what a business does about waste, and a measured printing policy gives you a clear answer.

Workflow improves as scanned files replace paper copies in shared folders.

Put sustainable printing into practice

Pick three practices from the list above, set them as defaults on every device, and measure the change after one quarter.

Choose printer leasing in Sydney, printer leasing in Perth, printer leasing in Adelaide, or printer leasing in Canberra, each with duplex set as default.

Regional operators in tourism, hospitality and agriculture often care most about the waste side of this.

Consumables and end of life devices are harder to move once they are on site.

Cellar doors, tour operators and local professional practices can start with printer leasing in Margaret River, where returned devices and used toner cartridges can go back through the supplier or a manufacturer take back program.

We also lease office printers with published energy figures anywhere else in Australia.

Ready to explore your options? Get your personalised quote with clear pricing, and ask for the published energy figure of each device.