Whether you sell widgets or sausages, business success often comes down to two choices: you can increase revenue, or you can decrease cost. Those are your basic levers on profitability.
As it turns out, IT sustainability practices are one of the best cost-reduction strategies you can pursue. Not only can print sustainability and so-called ‘Green IT’ help your budget, they’re an important part of your overall eco-credentials. In other words, how green you look to the outside world. With consumers increasingly favoring more ethical brands, and given the current economic uncertainty, cutting IT waste should be an important part of your overall ESG strategy. Basically, it’s just good business.
Here’s how to cut your IT costs – by first cutting IT waste. Step one: stop printing so much.
What is IT waste?
IT waste generally refers to physical waste generated by information technology equipment: printers, scanners, computers, servers and so on. For most offices, printing will be the biggest cause of IT waste. According to some sources, the average office worker uses about four dozen sheets of paper per day, of which half is considered waste. Around 70% of all waste in offices is made up of paper.
This is simultaneously a massive problem and a massive opportunity. With the right sustainability practices, you can really shrink your operating costs, and help the planet at the same time.
The environmental impact of IT waste
Paper accounts for about 26% of all waste in landfills, and the production of printer paper uses a vast amount of energy and water, not to mention the obvious effects of deforestation. Between 2001 and 2019, we lost 386 million hectares of global forests – a 10% decrease in tree cover since 2000.
It gets worse. From 2010 to 2060, despite incredible digital advances that should (in theory) make paper obsolete, the global consumption of paper and pulp is expected to double. And we haven’t even started covering ancillary waste products, like toner cartridges, ink cartridges, printer parts and components, plus the electronic waste from discarded circuitry. You can see how it all adds up!
You might think IT doesn’t have much to do with sustainability practices, but it’s a department that can generate a sizeable amount of commercial waste.
The cost of IT waste
How much does IT waste actually cost your business? As always, that depends on the business. What we can say is that, according to research firm, Gartner, paper accounts for about 3% of the average company’s expenses.
But it doesn’t stop there. A PWC study found that the average white-collar employee spends about eight hours a week managing paper documents. When you multiply that by an entire workforce, it represents a significant chunk of overall productivity. The cost of finding a single lost document? That’s been estimated at $122. And 750: that’s the number of lost paper documents a mid-size business loses every year
The benefits of print sustainability
Print sustainability is a great cost-reduction strategy because it ticks several boxes at once. It doesn’t require a big investment or infrastructure overhaul, anyone can do it, and the economic benefits are significant (and immediate). Printing is the third highest expense category within most organisations, and by using print sustainability software, like PaperCut, you can expect to see a 10-20% reduction in print costs. Not to mention IT waste.
How does this work? Well, with the right IT stack and print management software , you can actually get an overview of your current print ecosystem. At a glance, you can see who is printing, how often they’re printing, and where the biggest sources of waste actually are. With secure print release , you can eliminate abandoned print jobs, cutting down on paper and ink usage. You can even introduce print quotas , to encourage responsible printing behaviour.
The role of IT managers
Where should sustainability practices originate? Well, there’s a strong argument to be made that printing sustainability is everyone’s business. We all use the printer, so we should all learn to use it responsibly. But when it comes time for actual policy change, IT managers are usually a good place to start. As department heads, they know their team and their budgets best.
As Mark Schwartz from AWS says, “This budget-driven approach is sensible and gives middle managers discretion. It doesn’t dictate which [budget items] to cut but rather entrusts the manager, who knows their area best, to make the tough calls. Nevertheless, it gives the finance department predictability; they know how much spending will be cut and can be transparent with investors and the public.”
IT managers also have an important role to play when it comes to culture. IT waste and ‘Green IT’ are top-down initiatives: they rely on training, encouragement and communication. IT managers should first identify areas of potential waste, then formulate a plant to remove or reduce them. Once this plan has sign-off, it should be communicated to the wider team, then checked periodically to make sure it’s working effectively.
How to track and monitor IT waste
The best way? Find some robust print-management software, like PaperCut . This will give you granular control over your print ecosystem, making it easy to identify and eliminate areas of IT waste. If you need more ideas, check out our Top 10 tips for saving paper .
