What is your carbon tax on the environment?

There is a little over one and half months now until one of the biggest events of the year. No we aren’t talking about the London 2012 Olympics, rather the introduction of Australia’s Carbon Tax. Political debates aside, the introduction of the tax is a world first for reducing a nation’s carbon footprint and the impact us Aussie’s are having on the environment.

The impending introduction however has also brought carbon outputs to the front of mind for many businesses, with many now looking at ways to reduce their own footprint. These businesses aren’t just restricted to those affected by the tax, many SME’s and businesses with relatively small outputs are all looking at ways they too can do their bit for the environment.

Environment What is your carbon tax on the environment?

One area which businesses can look towards to reduce its carbon footprint is printing. While many often think big scale when looking to ‘go green’ simple measures such as reducing printing consumption can have an impact on carbon outputs, and is very cost effective.

Studies show that each piece of A4 paper accounts for 8.4 grams of carbon per sheet, therefore if a company is printing 1000 pieces of paper per day, they are effectively emitting 8.4 kilograms of carbon – and this is just from the paper alone, not including the energy requirement to run old, archaic devices. Improving simple back office functions such as document management and overall printing practices, organisations can reduce carbon emissions by an average of 32 per cent.

Thinking about how you too can reduce your carbon footprint through printing? Below are a few quick tips on reducing carbon output:

  • Prevention is better than a cure – Reducing overall use of paper, toner, equipment and energy is the most powerful environmental and financial strategy you can choose – far more effective than recycling. Much in the way preventing an injury is a far better option than any treatment. Keep that in mind next time you print off an unnecessary document.
  • Double-up – Duplexing (printing on both sides of the page) and multi-up (printing more than one page per sheet) are standard features on most modern print devices. Few businesses however take advantage of these features. Businesses can literally half their printing output, and thus their carbon output from printing, by making these functions default settings.
  • Solutions are the solution – Upstream has a number of solutions available to clients which can help reduce carbon outputs. While all Upstream solutions are successful in helping reduce printing output, the utrack solution allows you to track paper usage and carbon outputs resulting from printing. This information is shown in simple to understand terms, such as the equivalent number of trees used to power the printing and the equivalent amount of energy usage from a 50 watt light bulb in minutes. This can also be traced back to individual employees and departments.

To find out more information about how to reduce your printing carbon output, visit the Upstream Advantage Index.

Securing printing efficiencies

Can any business save money on printing costs?

In our experience, the answer is simple – yes.  Even if you think you don’t print much, chances are your employees are printing more than you realise.  The opportunities to improve efficiencies are therefore often huge.
A good example of this is the work we’ve been doing with Australian integrated services specialist SECUREcorp.
The business has printers based in over 200 remote offices across Australia and was keen to get Upstream on board to identify how it could improve the efficiency of this set up.
Securecorp logo Securing printing efficiencies

Following a detailed audit of current printing operations and implementation of Upstream managed print services, SECUREcorp has seen a printing device productivity improvement rate of 165 per cent.  In real-terms that’s led to a 17 per cent reduction in printing costs.  And it doesn’t stop there.  Over the next five years the business expects to save $50,000 on printing as a direct result of implementing managed print services.
For a business that needs to be efficient to remain competitive and profitable such cost savings can have a huge positive impact.
The next time you’re considering how best to improve business efficiencies don’t forget to consider printing – the savings might be bigger than you think.

To find our more on how your business can save on printing too, please visit Upstream’s advantage index.

Networking like a pro

At Upstream, we pride ourselves on the relationships we have with our customers. One area which all business employees must be adept in is networking. While the premise of networking sounds simple, there is a fine art to being able to engage with individuals and sell the merits of your business without seeming over bearing.

Our CEO, Neil Tilley has a lot of experience in networking, and he has shared with us a few tips he has picked up himself, and from other, over time. He believes that any networking conversation can be initiated through three common topics. These are Family, Occupation and Recreation. Continue reading

Do paperless offices start with paperless schools?

The paperless office concept

The paperless office concept is one that’s been talked about for many years but just how far are we off this becoming a reality? If recent news is anything to go by, it won’t take long. At Sydney-based Neutral Bay Public School, all year six pupils have been issued with an iPad as part of a $100,000 year-long trial. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, almost all classroom work will now be done on the hand-held device. Although the school admits the devices will not completely replace pen and paper, their introduction will significantly change the way in which students learn and produce work. ipad class release Do paperless offices start with paperless schools? Given these children will soon become our future workforce, their experiences are likely to shape the way in which they work later in life. Whether that’s taking notes in meetings electronically or reviewing everything using a tablet device or PC remains to be seen. What’s more certain however is just how much we can learn about future printing habits by going back to school.

To learn more about how your business can reduce paper consumption and head towards a paperless office visit www.upstream.com.au

 

Tackling the print less challenge

Getting you thinking about paper wastage and how to print less

If you stacked the millions of café loyalty cards distributed to Australians flat on top of each of other they’d extend about 2.5 times the height of Sydney Tower.  That’s a lot of cards – especially when you consider most of them will only be used once or end up lost.  It’s the same with office printing.  If you piled up all the documents your employees print each month it’s likely you’d be shocked by just how much is produced.paper Tackling the print less challenge

While the solution for the future of café loyalty may lie with smartphone apps rather
than physical cards, what about printing?  What steps can your business take to ensure employees print less?

The answer to that question is far from black and white.  Afterall, every business is
different.

Simple steps you can take to print less

1.       Audit what you print – If you’re going to have any
success in printing less a good place to start is by first assessing who is
printing what.  Does one department print a lot more than others?
What are they printing?  Is the printing in black and white or colour?
Are there individuals printing excessive amounts of documents?  Once you
know the answers to these questions, devising a print less strategy is much
easier.

2.       Set some policies – A lot of organisations talk the
talk when it comes to printing less but few formalise processes or educate
employees about what’s acceptable and not.  What policies look like will
depend on your business but typical policices include printing everything
double-sided and only using colour printers if absolutely critical.
Enforcing policies by regularly updating employees (especially new ones) is
crucial.

3.       Invest in tech – Sometimes educating employees
about why it’s important for environmental and economic reasons to print less
only gets you so far.  To have any real impact in reducing the amount
that’s printed organisations need to invest in solutions such as swipe and
release innovations that require employees to swipe an identification card
before a job is released from a printer.  Our experience shows
implementing such kit can help businesses shave around 20 per cent off their
annual printing bill.

What do you think?  Have you ever tried any of the steps outlined above to get your business to print less?