The focus was on trialling staff printer consolidation, moving from numerous desktop printers to fewer multi-functional devices (MFDs) with swipe card access which have the capability to print / photocopy double-sided (duplex), scan and in some cases fax documents. The benefits include energy saving, space saving, reduction in carbon emissions, reduced resource consumption e.g. paper, ink cartridges, accountability and less administration.
This guide is a summary of our experiences i.e. what we did do, and what we could have done, highlighting the pitfalls and benefits of consolidating staff office printing. Each organisation is different with its own setup and circumstance but we hope this guide will help! Documents from the project e.g. staff questionnaires; audit results etc are available online: http://www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/GreenICT.htm
Contents
Step 1 – Define your scope
Step 2 – Get the right people involved
Step 3 – Project planning
Step 4 – Site audit
Step 5 – Staff consultation
Step 6 – Communication
Step 7 – Behaviour change
Step 8 – Implementation
Step 9 – Data analysis
Step 10 – Keep up momentum
Report produced by: Sara Kassam, Energy & Environment Manager, University of East London
Thanks in no particular order to all involved in this project: Rob Bristow (JISC), Alan Lee (ICT, London South Bank University), Cameron Green and Conrad Healy (Global Action Plan), Darryl Newport, Rick Branston, Pervin Hussain, Kalton Ahmed, Paul Kernaghan, Linsey Cole, Steve Marlow, Richard Pennington, Gurdish Sandhu (UEL) and of course the pilot departments at UEL.
Step 1: Define your scope
1.1 Printing is a huge area of activity, ranging from everyday office printing to large volume specialist printing.
1.2 There are also different types of user including support staff, academic staff and students. Each will have different needs so the scope of your project needs to be clearly defined and the cost-benefits of options considered.
1.3 Decide if you are going to focus on a department or building as a trial or roll-out the project on a larger scale from the outset. We chose one non-academic department in an open plan office and two academic departments with cellular offices to pilot the initiative.
1.4 Introduction of ‘follow me printing’ or ‘print on demand’ systems where staff can use any MFD by swiping their ID card or typing in a code is recommended for maximum benefit.
1.5 Individual desktop printers should be seen as a sign of inefficiency rather than privilege or status. No person or department should ‘own’ a separate printer, scanner, photocopier, fax machine or MFD. Rather, this equipment should be an institutional resource, accessible to all staff regardless of physical location.
1.6 Someone must be assigned and responsible for the local group MFD. If not it can lead to neglect or misuse, which will increase down-time and customer dissatisfaction. The machine must also be proactively monitored on-line, so toner is sent to the assigned person before the toner runs out or paper can be obtained before that also runs out. This ensures that MFD uptime is maximised.
1.7 Also consider that printing is a means to an end, and that there are other ways of storing and sharing information. Printing on paper is simply one solution so your project needs to take into account other alternatives which can also be promoted.
Step 2: Get the right people involved
2.1 Choose your project partners carefully and ensure that they have the knowledge and skills that you need for the whole life of the project.
2.2 You should include people from the following departments (or equivalents); print services, ICT, sustainability/environment, procurement and marketing/communications. It is advised that the project manager is from the print services or ICT departments. Other expertise may be required at certain points in the project e.g. health and safety, fire safety.
2.3 Cross-departmental working can be challenging but will have huge benefits. Sounds obvious but it is surprising how little people from departments within the same institution talk to each other! Take some time to understand everyone’s methods of working and general constraints.
2.4 You will need buy-in at a senior level which may sound clichéd but ensure that this is proper buy-in. Directors, deans and senior managers you have approached need to have a thorough understanding of what you are trying to achieve especially as they should be giving up their desktop printers too!
2.5 Buy-in at an operational level is also important and this is where environmental champions can come in. You may already have a network set up at your institution or you may ask for volunteers especially for this project. We found departmental administrators to be invaluable throughout the project.
2.6 Contact your equipment provider to see what technical and training support they will make available. You may be staying with an incumbent or choosing a new provider for MFDs but either way, make sure they are fully signed up to the project. The ‘print on demand’ element was essential for us but the supplier struggled to provide us with a solution that worked effectively.
2.7 Ask your vice chancellor (VC) to endorse a printing strategy that promotes the efficient use of printing and multifunctional machines across campuses and invite the VC to be leading by example.
Step 3: Project planning
3.1 Produce a project plan with realistic timescales, allocate responsibilities and resources and ensure that everyone involved in the project has contributed to the plan.
3.2 If there a number of departments involved, you may want to develop service level agreements to really tie down what everybody is responsible for delivering.
3.3 Carry out a risk analysis of what could affect the success of your project but just identifying risks isn’t enough, do as much as you possibly can to reduce the likelihood an impact of them.
3.4 Research multifunctional devices, accountancy billing systems, blogs, ICT and print networks for the latest green technology and best value for money solutions in printing, scanning and photocopying.
3.5 Don’t take the technical solution for granted, setting this up can be just as complex as implementing a behavioural change campaign.
3.6 Find out if any departments in your organisation already use MFDs and what their experiences have been. People are more convinced if it has already been done elsewhere but it has to be the same type of department e.g. academic staff with cellular offices are more likely to pay attention to those with a similar setup, rather than support staff in an open plan office.
3.7 Think about every eventuality e.g. what happens to the desktop printers that are removed? Are they reused, donated to charity or sent for recycling? For us, the easiest way logistically was for our IT disposals company to collect the unused desktop printers and we asked for detailed information on how they were recycled to publicise to staff.
3.8 All departments are different so your approach will need to be tailored, for example academic staff will have different needs to service staff, and those in cellular offices will be different to open plan.
Step 4: Site audit
4.1 Information gathering can be time-consuming but really helpful for building your financial case, collating data for staff awareness and understanding the extent of environmental improvements that could be made.
4.2 Useful information includes quantity and cost of paper and toner/ink cartridges used. Some of this information may be available centrally from procurement or finance departments, but we also found that departments had their own devolved purchasing for printer consumables.
4.3 The number of imaging devices in general (printers, photocopiers, scanners, fax), and model/manufacturer of the equipment can be obtained through carrying out a site walkround.
This is a good opportunity to survey other items e.g. presence of recycling bins, if equipment is left on.
4.4 We estimated electricity consumption and CO2 emissions by using the ‘imaging’ tab of the SusteIT Energy and Carbon Footprinting tool: http://www.susteit.org.uk/files/category.php?catID=4
4.5 Your IT department may have information on the cost of maintaining and providing service support for desktop printers (having many models from different manufacturers can be very inefficient). Also check to see if any of the machines are under contract and their ownership status.
4.6 Analyse your information to produce easy-to-understand headline figures.
Example: UEL Site Audit Summary
2108 desks were surveyed and the following found:
- 788 imaging devices - 72% were desktop printers - 353 different models from 21 manufacturers - Account for 70 tonnes CO2 - Energy costs approx £10k PA
• Spent over £58,000 on printer cartridges last year.
• Use approximately 150 boxes of paper per week.
4.7 Working out potential savings from switching to MFDs (money, energy/CO2, time, resources) should help you to ‘sell’ the project and also produce a baseline which will help with evaluation of the project.
Step 5: Staff consultation
5.1 Consulting with staff from the outset helps to shape your project to ensure that needs are met as well as gaining some buy-in to what you’re trying to achieve.
5.2 We started with a general online questionnaire open to all staff, aiming to further understand knowledge, attitudes and behaviours around staff printing. The incentive was Fairtrade chocolate for the department who completed the most questionnaires and we had an 18% response rate.
5.3 As well as asking for people’s opinions on MFDs, we also took the opportunity to find out what staff thought generally about UEL’s environmental performance and facilities.
5.4 The online survey was followed by two focus groups held over lunch to obtain some more detailed insight. Priorities for staff were:
Reliable equipment, no long queues for printing and some form of backup in case of technical problems.
Confidentiality i.e. that printed documents wouldn’t be left lying around on top of printers.
Ability to print double-sided, to print in colour, to scan documents and to fax documents.
Training on more efficient printing methods.
Better information e.g. how to print duplex, what materials can be recycled and where.
5.5 After surveying all staff, we chose three pilot departments whose senior management were supportive of the project and also consulted with administrators for each of the departments. This brought up issues such as; a need to monitor print volumes and restricting access to colour printing where it is not essential. We also found that generally people wanted to be greener but just wanted to be shown how.
Step 6: Implementation
6.1 Use the site audit data and staff consultation to help produce an implementation plan that responds to concerns and needs that have been flagged up. Items to think about include:
What type of MFD will be placed where, are there any health and safety, access or fire safety issues. Reprographic rooms aren’t always available and putting MFDs in corridors can be tricky but not impossible.
Who will be responsible for ensuring paper supplies are available and that toner is changed when required.
How will the print on demand function work, through staff ID card, pin numbers or both.
How will the networking be set up so that staff can print from any machine.
How will print volume data be collected e.g. have all departmental cost codes been set up.
Are the MFDs provided centrally and therefore do departments need to be recharged/pay lease costs for using them.
Are there network points available/facility to install if the MFDs have fax capability.
How can scanned documents be collected i.e. are they emailed to the member of staff or sent to a shared drive.
How can scanned documents be reused, read or archived. i.e are they or can they be part of a university wide document management system.
What type of backup will be provided e.g. an administrator keeps a desktop printer just in case all MFDs in a building/area break down at once.
6.2 Once a piece of equipment becomes ‘communal’ it can be difficult to assign responsibility for maintenance. One way of dealing with this is a mixture of encouraging everyone to take ownership i.e. if there is problem to ensure that it is reported, and departmental administrators looking after machines in their area.
6.3 You will need to decide how best to remove desktop printers in a way that suits your organisation; staff can be very attached to their printers! Options include:
Install the MFDs, allow people to get used to using the new machines and then set a date for taking away desktop printers.
Allow people to keep their desktop printers until ink cartridges run out and not purchase any replacements through departmental budgets.
6.4 High level technical support is crucial (from in-house ICT, the external equipment provider or both) as there are likely to be teething problems. These need to be resolved immediately to avoid losing the goodwill or enthusiasm of staff who have switched from using desktop printers to MFDs.
Step 7: Behaviour change
7.1 There will be people who are very keen to switch to MFDs, those who are adamant that it will prevent them from working effectively and a group of people in the middle who with some support can be persuaded to use MFDs – this is the group to focus on.
7.2 It is important to sell the benefits and tailor these communications to different audiences. For example, some people may be interested in saving money, others in being greener and others will be keen on the additional functionality/time-saving features.
7.3 Make things as easy as possible! This can include having clear user instructions available above each MFD, a web page answering frequently asked questions and generally dealing with people’s questions as soon as possible to avoid disruption of their work.
7.4 Staff may be wary of having to use a new system and take some time to get used it. Continue to emphasise the benefits and ensure that genuine concerns are addressed.
7.5 Manage expectations. There are likely to be glitches when implementing the new system so be careful how you communicate the initiative to staff.
7.6 This is a good opportunity to promote other environmental issues such as recycling and energy efficiency.
7.7 One of our pilot departments found that posters above MFDs stating how much printing cost per sheet was an effective way of raising awareness – people started to share meeting agendas. Alternatives to printing can also be promoted e.g. using screens in meeting rooms to display meeting papers.
7.8 Showing people how much printing is usually wasted is effective too; one administrator collected a week’s worth of uncollected printing and showed her senior management team to reinforce the message that swipe card access to printers would be beneficial.
7.9 Make sure that your vice-chancellor’s department endorse the policy and get involved and give up their desktop printers early on. This will show support at the highest level and also provide senior management with an insight to the practicalities of the initiative.
7.10 Publicise the energy / resource / cost savings made wherever you can and feedback to staff on their progress, positively reinforcing ‘green’ behaviours.
Example: The Great Green Scheme
An interactive game was designed to illustrate the environmental actions that staff can take in their offices.
Based around the characters of an ‘energy bandit’ and ‘energy policeman’, actions include removing desktop printers in favour of MFDs, and recycling.
Each action has further detail outlining the benefits of carrying it out and the game which only takes a few minutes to play has proved popular with staff.
Game available at: www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing
Step 8: Communication
8.1 The aim is to let people know about the change, explain its purpose and the motivations driving it. How you do this will vary depending on who your audience is but always be clear about your message from the outset.
8.2 Methods we used included presentation to senior management teams of departments, one to one meetings with key people within departments and attendance at staff meetings.
8.3 Training sessions were held by our equipment provider so that people could ask questions and tryout the new equipment. Staff take-up varied, some felt that they didn’t have the time to attend whilst others said that they weren’t held on at appropriate times. Be aware of holiday times when scheduling activities as the bulk of teaching staff won’t be around.
8.4 Don’t rely on emails to communicate information. People don’t read them, read them too late or just don’t take the information in.
8.5 Sometimes information is better coming from within a department rather than from a central source. Often people are more likely to pay attention to their administrator rather than an unknown member of staff from Facilities or a senior manager. Also many staff dislike the top-down approach.
8.6 Keep up the communications. Regular reminders, updates, requests for feedback etc will help to embed the initiative and hopefully discover any unreported issues causing staff concern.
Step 9: Data analysis
9.1 This can be difficult as there are a number of variables involved but it needs to be done! Make your assumptions clear and show what data you have used to make your calculations.
9.2 Types of information that can be used include; staff hours spent photocopying and printing, quantity and cost of paper used over a certain time period, cost and quantity of toner cartridges, cost of leasing MFDs and cost per sheet printed compared to using desktop printers.
9.3 Sources of data include; the central procurement department, administrators in individual departments (often procurement for consumables is devolved), print services, the energy and environment team (for energy costs and CO2 emissions) etc.
9.4 After installation of MFDs and associated communication campaigns, survey staff again and assess their opinions. This information can be used to inform roll-out of the initiative to other departments or simply to evaluate the project as it is and see how ongoing improvements can be made.
Step 10: Keep up momentum
10.1 Continue to promote the principles of efficient printing through as many angles as possible e.g. during new build or refurbishment, take the opportunity to move people to an MFD environment and don’t let staff take desktop printers with them.
10.2 Use procurement / financial approval processes to prevent the purchase of desktop printers, develop departmental policy not to fund desktop ink cartridges etc.
10.3 And the final piece of advice is to stick with it, perseverance is essential - a greener, more efficient world of office printing is possible!
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