Simple Printing Changes Can Reduce Costs By 20 Percent
Published, March 25, 2013
Department of the Navy leadership is putting action behind its words on saving money on printing costs. All Navy Secretariat and Chief of Naval Operations NMCI unclassified printer default settings are being changed to print documents in black ink, with draft quality, and on both sides of the paper. The changeover started March 15 and is scheduled to continue through April 5.
Printing in color costs up to 10 times as much as printing in black ink only, and making this change government-wide could result in a savings of up to $171 million a year, according to the General Services Administration. Likewise, the use of draft-quality printing can reduce toner costs by up to 20 percent, typically without significantly decreasing print quality. The resulting average annual savings to the government could reach up to $30 million. Double-sided printing could result in an estimated savings up to $61 million annually government-wide and up to 546,850 trees.
The approximate 4,000 users affected by this change will still be able to print color, high-quality or single-sided documents by changing the settings for individual print jobs.
This change is mandated by the DON CIO memo "Mandatory Guidance Regarding Management of Department of the Navy Copiers, Printers, Fax Machines and Multifunctional Devices” of Jan. 23, 2013, which can be viewed here.
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