How to Reduce Your Paper Usage in the Workplace

If you run an office, you may look around and see paper waste spread over desks and in the garbage or recycling bins. One of the simple questions that can arise is: "Can we reduce the amount of paper we use?" 

Here at ManagedPrint, we work with companies to help them reduce costs and improve efficiencies for their organizations. Sometimes we do this through a process, sometimes through education and sometimes through architecture. All of these have a play on this particular question.

Reducing Print through Software:

This is one of the easier ways to reduce printed pages. What we do is install software that will ensure your users print, and then validate the job at the printer before the job is released. We are a Papercut dealer, and this is the software we generally use to help reduce the amount of print needed in an organization. 

You can set rules about color, black and white, long print jobs, etc. These all have an impact on how much is printed. In fact, Papercut estimates simply having badge printing set up can reduce the amount your organization prints by up to 30%. Rules-based printing tends to help organizations print a lot less or at least a lot more efficiently.

Reducing Print through Education

The next big way to reduce printing is by education. When a department sees how much they are printing and how much that costs the company, this one item alone is often enough to help push change through the organization. If you know you print more than anyone at a 300-person company, you will ask yourself if every job is absolutely critical to print. If it is, there won't be an issue. Just getting all the employees to think about how much they print.

Reducing Print Through Architecture:

In this instance, IT architecture is considered. Often, people print because the reports are difficult to read on smaller screens. When the staff have bigger screens, then they often choose to print less. Small suggestions can make a big difference when it comes to print quantities.

Another architecture consideration is copier or printer placement. If the copier or printer requires a little walking to get there, this alone can help discourage users from printing everything.

ManagedPrint Can Help!

We have worked with companies and helped them reduce their prints, and therefore their costs, over the past 10 years. We do this with education, software, and architecture solutions. If you are looking to reduce the amount your organization prints, we would love to help.

We help companies set up print policies and printer repair across the USA. We can help your company come up with sensible strategies to reduce your print and to lower your printing costs on your print fleet. We would love to help you if you have 10 printers or 1,000 printers in your office.