Strong sustainability practices are a vital element of modern business and more and more often, it's important to demonstrate how your business processes operate sustainably. 

Thankfully, when managed print services (MPS) becomes your document management model, sustainability can be an easier win - providing you engage with an experienced MPS provider.

Finding the pain points

An experienced MPS provider will help you quickly identify the pain points preventing you from achieving your sustainability goals.

Providing they have their own track record of sustainable business practices, this is a relationship that will become particularly valuable.

By working on raising the efficiency of your output device fleet, you’ll lower energy consumption, cut down on waste and reduce your usage of consumables.

To do this, document solutions need to be in place that can help reduce the organisation’s reliance on paper and cut wasted print-outs.

Working together towards sustainability goals

Your MPS provider should work closely with you to implement a solution that effectively reduces both energy and paper consumption, thus raising your sustainability efforts.

Modern MFPs can assist, too. Devices are now designed to use resources more efficiently, thus helping the businesses that use them to minimise - and, in some cases, eliminate - waste.

Sustainability isn’t solely about lofty goals and large projects designed to raise efficiency, either. There are lots of simple tasks businesses can undertake to reduce paper waste. For instance:

• think before you print, and use preview features within software to avoid printing unwanted pages;
• use ‘pull printing’ which holds jobs on devices until the person who initiated them swipes an ID card;
• if an email needs to be printed, avoid printing all the replies beneath;
• use eco-friendly print driver settings such as duplex printing, and application-specific options that enable black and white printing; and
• distribute documents electronically, rather than via hard copy, whenever feasible.

MPS sustainability success stories

We’re committed to helping out clients with their sustainability efforts by reducing the environmental impact of working with documents.

What follows are two examples of successful collaborative sustainability efforts between Xenith and its clients.

Royal Horticultural Society uses 508 fewer trees pages per annum

As the world’s leading horticultural organisation, the RHS believes in efficient business processes and recognises that an optimised printing environment significantly reduces its carbon footprint.

The RHS needed an MPS provider that could support their organisation by delivering high-quality printing in an efficient manner.

They engaged with Xenith, and following an in-depth print assessment, we implemented a company-wide solution that reduced costs by 30%, improved document security and used 508 fewer trees.

Buro Four reduces print volume by 564,000

Buro Four is a project management company that was founded in 1985. It has been instrumental in delivering multi-billion pound projects across the UK and Middle East

The complexity of both the industry and Buro Four’s business resulted in it using around 900,000 sheets of paper in London alone every year.

After signing up Xenith as their MPS provider, Buro Four were able to significantly reduce paper consumed and waste produced, while also reducing the cost of printing.

Their packaging waste reduced from 72kg to 12kg per year, and the solution put in place helped them achieve the ISO 14001 environment standard.

All in all, their print volume reduced by 564,000 pages per year and the total savings from the changes made by Xenith and MPS are projected at £28,8000 per annum.

While sustainability probably isn’t the sole consideration in your document management decision, it should be a big part of it. We hope the stories above have provided the inspiration you need to go green.