March 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Xerox develops Sustainability Calculator for doc tech
Add Xerox to the list of vendors adding green-o-meter functionality to their wares. The company Tuesday will unveil what it dubs a Sustainability Calculator, designed to help customers evaluate the environmental impact of their document-technology systems, such as printers, faxes, and copiers.
Part of the company's Xerox Office Services, the Sustainability Calculator measures the waste and greenhouse gas emissions associated with powering printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction devices. It also measures the differences, in environmental terms, resulting from practices such as printing single-sided documents instead of double-sided, or using different types of ink.
In addition to the aforementioned version, which Xerox reps would use during an assessment for a customer, the company also has developed a slimmed-down Web-based version.
Both calculators require a user to input information about the various machines in his or her organization. They then employ "proprietary algorithms and document assessment research to deliver data about a company's entire fleet of office products, from printers to multifunction devices and copiers, regardless of the equipment supplier," according to Xerox.
Once a customer has a glimpse of the inefficiency of its document-tech systems, the next step (Xerox hopes) is to show customers how to gain efficiency by, say, in retiring various older copiers, fax machines, and printers for fewer, newer MFDs.
It might be tempting for to dismiss this type of tool as simply a marketing scheme to exploit CXOs who've caught a case of the green fever that's swept the U.S. and beyond. But the reality is, there are cost savings to be had from certain sustainable practices, and making adjustments to your company's network of printers and other document-technology products is one of them. That includes moving to fewer multi-purpose machines as your older ones are ready for retirement.
First, a new model MFD should be Energy Star compliant, which means it has a significantly lower power draw -- as much as 70 percent, according to Xerox -- than that of its one-function predecessors combined. Also, from a green perspective, manufacturing and shipping four machines -- a copier, a scanner, a fax machines, and a printer -- requires more resources than does building and shipping a single MFD that can do the work of four.
According to Patricia Calkins, vice president of environment, health, and safety at Xerox, many customers have been asking for more information about the green benefits of consolidating doc-tech systems and improv-ing their printing practices. "I was very surprised as I've been doing customer roundtables," says Calkins. "We talk about optimizing the office, and people have said, 'We understand the financial benefits. We want to talk about the environmental benefits."
Global defense and technology company Northrop Grumman worked with Xerox at one of its sectors to reduce a fleet of 2,000 printers, hundreds of MFDs, and stand-alone copiers to fewer than 1,100 devices. According to the Sustainability Calculator numbers, the change resulted in a savings of 27 percent in energy usage while reducing GHG emissions by 26 percent and solid waste creation by 33 percent.
Posted by Ted Samson on March 24, 2008 09:55 PM
December 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Xerox, AMD garner recognition for reducing GHGs
Xerox and AMD garnered special recognition from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) this week for recently achieving their long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals and for extending their commitment to climate-change management. Xerox and AMD are both participants in the EPA's Climate Leaders initiative, the largest corporate GHG goal-setting program in the United States.
Xerox managed to reduce its emissions by 18 percent from 2002 to 2006. The company is now aiming to lower its total global GHG emissions by 25 percent from 2002 to 2012.
Xerox reports that is managed to shrink its GHG production by reducing fuel usage of cars and trucks driven by sales and service employees. The company also curbed its natural gas consumption and electricity usage. Through its efforts, Xerox says it prevented the emissions of 87,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide last year and saved $18 million in energy expenses.
Looking ahead to its 2012 goal, Xerox plans to design more products that use its EA toner, which the company says is grown by a chemical process and uses 25 percent less energy to produce than does traditional toner made by the grinding method. Moreover, the company says it's adjusting climate control equipment to reap higher energy savings.
Meanwhile, AMD achieved its initial goal by reducing emissions by 53 percent per manufacturing index (unit of production) from 2002 to 2006. The chipmaker is now pledging to reduce its global GHG emissions by 33 percent per manufacturing index from 2006 to 2010.
Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and writer of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 6, 2007 01:34 PM
November 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Xerox and GreenPrint ink deal to cut print waste
The datacenter, server room, and the desktop aren't the only places to cut tech-related waste at your organization. The printing station is a prime location to reap some eco-friendly, cost-cutting benefits, considering that organizations waste around $90 per year, per user, in ink and paper expenses on unnecessary printing.
To that end, Xerox has teamed up with GreenPrint, a provider of software that lets users easily tweak documents in a print preview mode to remove superfluous graphics, text, or entire pages. The company's GreenPrint Enterprise software is available as a free download for customers who purchase one of Xerox's Phaser 8560 or 8860 solid ink color printers.
This looks to be a pretty potent waste-reducing combination. I've tried out GreenPrint, and it certainly has potential to save paper and ink.
Meanwhile, solid ink color printers, according to Xerox, "greatly reduce the waste associated with disposable toner and ink consumables by using solid sticks of non-toxic ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges." They produce 90 percent less waste than a typical color laser printer, the company says. Solid ink printers also do not produce ozone, which has environmental and health benefits.
"We see bundling our software with Xerox solid ink printers as an ideal fit in a lot of ways," said GreenPrint CEO Hayden Hamilton in a written statement. "The solid ink printers have been designed to eliminate the waste associated with toner cartridges, bringing annual waste related to packaging and cartridges down from 157 pounds to 5 pounds per printer. With the inclusion of GreenPrint, their solid ink users can eliminate unnecessary printed pages, reducing the waste and cost associated with printing by an additional 15 to 20 percent across the board."
The bundling of the Phaser 8560 or 8860 and GreenPrint Enterprise is available now.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 2, 2007 12:21 PM
November 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Xerox and GreenPrint ink deal to cut print waste
The datacenter, server room, and the desktop aren't the only places to cut tech-related waste at your organization. The printing station is a prime location to reap some eco-friendly, cost-cutting benefits, considering that organizations waste around $90 per year, per user, in ink and paper expenses on unnecessary printing.
To that end, Xerox has teamed up with GreenPrint, a provider of software that lets users easily tweak documents in a print preview mode to remove superfluous graphics, text, or entire pages. The company's GreenPrint Enterprise software is available as a free download for customers who purchase one of Xerox's Phaser 8560 or 8860 solid ink color printers.
This looks to be a pretty potent waste-reducing combination. I've tried out GreenPrint, and it certainly has potential to save paper and ink.
Meanwhile, solid ink color printers, according to Xerox, "greatly reduce the waste associated with disposable toner and ink consumables by using solid sticks of non-toxic ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges." They produce 90 percent less waste than a typical color laser printer, the company says. Solid ink printers also do not produce ozone, which has environmental and health benefits.
"We see bundling our software with Xerox solid ink printers as an ideal fit in a lot of ways," said GreenPrint CEO Hayden Hamilton in a written statement. "The solid ink printers have been designed to eliminate the waste associated with toner cartridges, bringing annual waste related to packaging and cartridges down from 157 pounds to 5 pounds per printer. With the inclusion of GreenPrint, their solid ink users can eliminate unnecessary printed pages, reducing the waste and cost associated with printing by an additional 15 to 20 percent across the board."
The bundling of the Phaser 8560 or 8860 and GreenPrint Enterprise is available now.
Posted by Ted Samson on November 2, 2007 12:21 PM
