Being eco-friendly was once seen as a trend that many people suspected wouldn’t last. However, in today’s modern office, being sustainable is no longer just a corporate initiative designed to make the company look good. Instead, it’s a vital part of the company’s reputation. Businesses in Santa Rosa and across all of California are striving to meet new environmental standards and reduce their carbon footprints. While production lines and transportation are two areas that are often targeted for these initiatives, one area that is often overlooked is office printer technology.
There are a number of ways to reduce your electronic waste by changing how you use printers and copiers. One of the biggest things you can do is stop the cycle of “buy-use-discard.” This cycle involves buying printers, using them until they no longer suit your purposes or no longer work, and then discarding them. This creates a large amount of waste that includes everything from plastic casings to the metals in the circuit boards and non-biodegradable components in the toner cartridges. This cycle has a large impact on the environment.
Fortunately, there is another option, and many offices are taking advantage of it: leasing. By leasing, you are able to both avoid costly purchases and decrease your impact on the environment. Common Sense Business Solutions can help you see how leasing a Konica Minolta device may be the perfect way to reduce the amount of e-waste your office generates.
How Office Equipment Impacts the Environment
Unfortunately, even with recycling, the amount of global e-waste is only increasing year after year. Millions of tons of electronics end up in landfills every year, despite the fact that many of these items contain recyclable materials. Once they’re in the landfill, they may result in toxic materials such as cadmium, mercury, or lead entering the soil and the local groundwater. This can quickly damage the environment and have an impact on the local wildlife as well as those who leave near the landfill.
Sadly, many people see printers and small copiers as disposable devices. They don’t take up much space, and the cost of repairing them is often about the same as simply buying a new unit. Because of this, it’s easy to justify throwing the old equipment in the trash.
There’s also the energy usage, especially if you have older printers. These devices are less energy efficient, resulting in higher utility bills and a larger burden on the local power grid. Cartridges, both ink and toner, are also typically considered disposable but can greatly impact the environment.
How Leasing Breaks This Cycle
Leasing creates a different type of cycle. Instead of following a buy-use-dispose cycle, it creates a circular system. This leasing cycle focuses on using office equipment for as long as possible, getting the maximum amount of value from it before returning it to the leasing company and upgrading. These returned devices are typically refurbished and may be leased or sold. Those that aren’t are recycled, reducing the impact on the environment.
Why Lease?
When you lease a Konica Minolta printer, you gain everything that device has to offer but take on much less responsibility. When you buy a device, you’re responsible for all of its maintenance, repairs, operations, toner, and anything else. With leasing, however, much of that remains with CSBS. Here are some of the benefits to this arrangement:
Preventative maintenance – Our service agreements cover preventative maintenance, which means we will regularly service the Konica Minolta printers and copiers you’ve leaded. This extends their lifespan and results in fewer unexpected breakdowns. Many offices do not pay for preventative maintenance, leading to their printers breaking down more often.
Refurbish and Re-use – When you come to the end of your lease, the equipment isn’t disposed of. Instead, it’s evaluated and, if it’s still in good condition, it’s refurbished and reused. Even if the device isn’t able to be reused, it may be dismantled for parts.
Disposed of Responsibly – When a device can’t be used any longer, it’s not thrown in the trash. Instead, it goes through an e-waste recycling program that reclaims any metals, plastics, and other components that can be recycled.
Konica Minolta and the Environment
Choosing the right brand of equipment is just as important as choosing the right model. Konica Minolta has a long history of focusing on sustainability. They have a reputation for being an early adaptor of green manufacturing policies and techniques. This is reflected in the design of their printers, copiers, and all-in-one hubs. They are Energy Star certified and have been rated EPEAT Gold, which is the highest rating for electronics.
Konica Minolta has more than earned this rating. They make use of a number of innovative ways of reducing energy use. Some other brands simply have low power modes or something similar, but Konica Minolta has taken steps to lower energy usage when the device is actively printing, too. For example, they have created a special type of toner that fuses to paper at a lower temperature. This means the printer doesn’t have to get as hot in order to print clear images. It also reduces the amount of time the printer needs to warm up, allowing for faster prints.
Another unique feature is their eco-timer technology. This technology is a form of AI that learns suage patterns. It uses these patterns to adjust sleep modes, ensuring that your printer isn’t using a lot of power when no one is in the office.
Konica Minolta and Recycling
Konica Minolta’s Clean Planet Program was created to help consumers recycle their old printers and toner cartridges. It provides a very easy way for businesses to recycle these items, and there’s no cost to make use of it. By making it free, Konica Minolta has created a simple way to keep materials out of the landfill.
Our Commitment to the Environment
CSBS is more than just a leasing company – we’re your neighbor in the North Bay area. We want to make certain our neighborhood remains as beautiful as possible for as long as possible. To that end, we’re dedicated to recycling and reducing our impact on the environment.
To that end, we support green business practices. If your business wants to achieve carbon neutrality, we’ll work with you to find the right equipment to reach that goal. We also recycle every retired device so that nothing goes into the dumpster. If it’s plastic, metal, or some other recyclable material, we’ll make sure it gets recycled.
Tips for Eco-Friendly Printing
Leasing a printer with energy-saving features is the first step to reducing your impact on the environment, but it’s not the only thing you can do. How you use your printer also matters. Here are a few different tips for eco-friendly printing:
- Turn on double-sided printing. Printing on both sides of the page, also called duplex printing, will instantly reduce your paper consumption by 50 percent.
- Use draft, eco, or proof mode. These modes are designed to use less toner or ink. While the printed document may not be quite as dark as a regular print, it’s still very legible and is perfect for internal documents or drafts that you’re going to edit.
- Have the printer hold print jobs. By turning this feature on, an employee will have to enter a code or scan their badge in order to release a print job. This is great for security because it means people won’t read documents left on the printer that they shouldn’t see, but it can also impact your paper usage. Sometimes, print jobs are forgotten on the printer and get thrown away.
- Move towards a digital workplace. While it may sound counterintuitive to use a printer to reduce your reliance on paper, a Konica Minolta all-in-one can be used to scan in documents. You can then keep these documents in a digital archive and recycle the original one, reducing the amount of space you have to dedicate to paper records.
Go Green with a Leased Konica Minolta Device
Reducing your impact on the environment doesn’t have to be difficult, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. By leasing a Konica Minolta printer through CSBS, you can save money, reduce your overall energy use, and implement a green office solution. To learn more, reach out to CSBS today.
