Our IT team are currently in the process of a major project to replace older multifunction devices (MFD) printers with more modern and more energy efficient devices.
The project will allow the college to reduce overall power, material consumption and our carbon output, while maintaining a workable and sustainable self print service.
During this project a printer device audit has been undertaken and the overall amount of printing devices reduced, where the college wide assessment found certain devices in areas were not being sufficently used to justify the power draw/material cost/usage.
In addition, the college now limits the number of paper prints per user and tracks this more carefully for better insight into our printing usage and targets. This also helps staff and students become more aware of the environmental impact and being more considerate before printing every resource.
Did you know? The paper we use in our MFDs comes from a 100% sustainable source. Learn more about our Paper Chain initiative.
Key outcomes of the project
Identify printers no longer required
As part of the project, a full audit of printing devices has been undertaken to identify where we can remove printing devices entirely.
Replace existing printing devices with more energy efficient devices
Where printing devices have found to be needed or used sufficently for business operations, these have been replaced with more modern devices across all campuses.
Limit printing per user across the college
Any staff member or student at the college has a maximum limit of paper print. In addition, print jobs over a certain amount of pages are flagged to our dedicated reprographics service, who can facilitate larger jobs at scale, while being more cost effective.
Continued awareness of printing impact
The college continues to run campaigns around printing, with the aim of reducing overall printing requirements such as moving to digital processes where possible. The college has run several "no print" days as part of raising awareness with staff and students at the college of printing only when neccersary and the environmental impact it has.
Putting the measures in place aims to reduce paper usage overall and encourage users to consider using digital options or to look for alternative cheaper solutions for large number of prints, if required. This will reduce our carbon output and our material waste.
