Rethinking Printing - Kyocera Environmental Survey 2011

Key Stats Summary

• 71% of office workers consider themselves environmentally conscious

• 14% of workers have increased the amount of printing they do in the last year

• Workers print 6,000 sheets a year on average, of which 3,720 are wasted or unnecessary

• Only 25% of companies have a formal, written print policy

• 21% of IT time is spent dealing with printer issues

• 62% have audited their print services in the past year

• Nearly half (48%) of workers claim to have no knowledge of their companies’ carbon offset policy

Is this finally the dawn of the paperless office?

Kyocera environmental survey finds major reductions in print volumes for the first time

Kyocera's annual environmental survey has this year discovered a significant drop in the number pages office-based workers print each year. Since the company first carried out the survey in its current form in 2007, the average number of pages printed by an office based worker has remained static at 40 sheets per day, equating to 10,000 sheets per year. In 2011 the average number of pages printed per year has dropped by 40% to 6000. This dramatic and sudden decrease could signal that, after many false starts, the long-heralded dawn of the paperless office is finally at hand.

Despite this drop in the number of pages printed, the proportion that are "wasted" each year has remained static at 66%. "Wasted" pages include those that could have been printed double-sided, those printed in error, and those printed but never collected from the device.

Commenting on the trends, Tracey Rawling Church, Director of Brand and Reputation at Kyocera Mita UK said: "This significant drop in print volumes indicates a sea-change in UK business. Anecdotally there appears to be far more confidence in mobile devices and electronic forms, and a willingness to rely on electronic information rather than having a piece of paper to hand. The proportion of wasted prints remains high, however, and the research showed that 72% of respondents felt that responsibility for reducing print volumes lies with the individual, with 44% admitting that they could print less than they currently do. This indicates a lack of awareness of the possibilities of automating reductions in print volumes by setting duplex functions as standard and applying print policy software."

Economic effects

For the second consecutive year it seems that the economic situation has had a neutral or positive effect on companies' environmental initiatives, with 45% of respondents stating that the economic downturn had either had no effect on their green plans, or had actually increased the focus on becoming more environmentally responsible and efficient.

Procurement

This year Kyocera Mita delved more deeply into the attitudes of procurement professionals towards "green" purchasing. The responses showed that despite 71% of organisations stating that they have a green procurement policy, only 1 in 4 procurement managers would reject a potential supplier based on failure to meet green criteria. The survey also showed that while a 75% of organisations ask questions about a supplier’s environmental credentials at the tender stage, only 18% carry out subsequent audits on suppliers following the tender award. Unsurprisingly, cost reduction remains the highest priority for 89% of procurement managers, with only 52% reporting a similar level of concern for environmental issues.
Tracey Rawling Church comments: “There seems to be a disconnect between policy and the day-to-day reality of purchasing. In my experience, procurement managers are targeted and rewarded on the basis of the cost savings that they achieve, so it’s not surprising that focus drifts away from a supplier’s environmental credentials.”

82% of respondents felt that waste reduction would be the primary benefit of taking environmental issues into account when selecting goods and services, while 80% believed that energy efficiency would improve. Only 46% anticipated that there would be lower costs.
Conclusions

Business technology is a major area of environmental concern. Too often, however, environmental action in the workplace take a back seat to concerns seen as more immediate, such as short-term cost savings. The current economic situation, which has given rise to a renewed emphasis on longer-term savings, has motivated increased emphasis on efficiency and related green concerns. Obstacles to more responsible green action in the workplace remain, however. These include ingrained habits (such as single-side printing and assigning employees their own printers), short-term planning (such as examining supplier efficiency at tender, but not after), and lack of joined-up action (such as not communicating existent offset schemes to environmentally-concerned employees). All of these are part of a larger, overarching issue: businesses are still not fully connecting their day-to-day green concerns to their long-term plans for business success.

This is particularly striking in the technological environment of 2011, in which the efficiency and sustainability benefits of green choices bring ever-clearer benefits to the bottom line. Businesses who ‘think green’ when making technology and policy choices have the opportunity to make a profit both for themselves and for the environment. In order to fully capitalise on the opportunity for green technology success, the most forward-looking businesses need to rethink their established ways of doing things. They need to:

• Consider centrally-managed policy change to combat habitual waste and actively promote more efficient alternatives. Consistency across the business, which comes from central management decisions, will insure that no ‘pockets of bad practice’ remain, and that the entire business benefits from the best green initiatives.

• Monitor their actions on an ongoing basis, to make sure that standards are being met, and that the business receives maximum benefits. This ongoing engagement includes technology purchases (which should be audited regularly) and consideration of other, possibly more efficient solutions, such as externally managed printing services and the cloud.

• Communicate across the business about what is being done, why it is being done, and how it could be done better. Businesses need to capitalise on the reservoirs of green concern and engagement within their business. They need to make sure that employees are aware of initiatives and able to contribute ideas for improvement, so that innovation can come from all levels.

Success in 2012 and beyond is about going beyond short-term efficiency measures and moving toward a truly green model of business technology. In the most innovative companies, the green concerns of management and staff are harnessed into a continual effort toward innovation. With the entire organisation engaged in continual improvement, both the bottom line and the environment benefit.

Rethinking Printing
Kyocera Environmental Survey 2011
Full report
http://www.kyoceramita.co.uk/index/kyocera_mita_environmental.-contextmargin-62577-File.cpsdownload.tmp/Executive%20Summary%20and%20Analysis.pdf

Rethinking Printing
Kyocera Environmental Survey 2011
PowerPoint
http://www.kyoceramita.co.uk/index/kyocera_mita_environmental.-contextmargin-27202-File.cpsdownload.tmp/Environmental%20Findings%202011%20FINAL.pdf

Rethinking Printing
Kyocera Environmental Survey 2011
Video
http://www.kyoceramita.co.uk/index/kyocera_mita_environmental.html