Think Before You Print

Did you know that the average Federal employee prints 7,200 pages each year?  According to the 2009 Federal Government Printing Report (PDF - 2.52 MB), 92 percent of Feds confess that they don't need all of the documents they print each day.  In fact, Federal workers discard 35% of the paper they print on the very same day.  The financial costs of unnecessary printing are also quite staggering. The federal government spends nearly $1.3 billion annually on employee printing.  Of these costs, $440.4 million per year are unnecessary - more than $1 million per day!

What can you do to help reduce your environmental impact and save some green $$)?

• Review your daily e-mail online, don't print it
• Place information on web pages rather than printing paper  copies
• Print only the selections you need
• Print double-sided copies from your network printer (duplex printing) – See below for tips!
• Electronically distribute PowerPoint presentations and other meeting materials
• Use online subscriptions and review selections from your screen
• Print in draft mode to increase printing speed
• Print in grayscale and use color printing sparingly
• Whenever practical, print more than one page per sheet
• If possible, lower font size one level and widen margins a bit
• Before printing, use print preview and "shrink to fit" to   check layout
• Use recycled paper products in your office

If possible in your locale, recycle your printer cartridges.  At the end of the day, please turn off all copiers and monitors.  All printers may also be powered down at the end of the day, with the exception of printers using solid state ink, such as the Xerox Phaser 8560.  Please keep these energy-efficient printers turned on to avoid unnecessary toner discharge.

To allow for security and antivirus updates, please leave your PC turned ON, unless your post has a current wake on LAN power management policy; continue to adhere to that policy. Thin clients may be powered off at the end of each day.

Remember: Small changes can make a big difference.  Think green! The Green Team encourages you to set the default on your printer to print on both sides.