As an eco-conscious business solutions company, innov8 always practices the four R’s: recycle, reduce, reuse, and repair. We celebrate Earth Day every day, as is apparent in the way we run business daily and within our branding, especially our logo. Not only are the toner colours of magenta, yellow, and cyan represented, but so is green--for the Earth!
For us, environmental responsibility is not just a statement. We live it, continuously striving to lessen our carbon footprint in innovative ways everyday. Our methods include recycling all of our packaging materials as well as ink and toner cartridges, and offering office equipment solutions that won’t fill up the landfill. We even plan out our delivery service to be more efficient to save fuel and reduce emissions.
Learn how our business is making a difference, and how you can make your business printing solutions more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.
Lessening our Material World
Products need to be protected when in transit and are typically packed in materials that include:
- Cardboard
- Plastic
- Styrofoam
We don’t believe in passing all that waste on to our customers. Instead, we have a system of waste reduction that includes:
- Recycling all cardboard by placing bins at each of our locations.
- Reusing Styrofoam. We send Styrofoam packaging to a local building product producer who turns the Styrofoam into insulation for foundations and septic systems.
- Reducing the amount of packaging by assembling, delivering, and installing all our products in person.
Toning Down the Ink
While innov8’s fifth ‘R’, “refilling”, may seem like the best option when it comes to reusing your laser ink and toner cartridges, it is not an efficient method. Refilling often results in poor printing quality, high failure rate and, even more waste all while shortening product life.
innov8 Digital Solutions, along with our suppliers, provide recycling programs that allow customers to return their empty toner and ink cartridges safely.
Learn more about recycling programs for HP, Sharp, Lexmark, and Canon printer cartridges, and access return labels for shipping Learn more about our recycling programs.
You can also save money and prevent waste with innov8’s Managed Print Services, offering:
- Service
- Maintenance
- Automated ink and toner delivery
Our technicians can also deliver and pick up bulk orders of cartridges and toner bottles when servicing your equipment. By reducing shipping costs and mileage, we can reduce our carbon footprint one step at a time.
The Benefit of MFPs
Remember the days when offices contained personal copiers, printers, fax machines, and scanners? Think about what happened when all that equipment went to pasture.
Landfills and even some recycling facilities can no longer handle the amount of waste caused by expired office equipment.
The solution? MFPs (multi-functional printers). Consolidating functions such as printing, copying, scanning, emailing, and more all into one efficient and sleek unit reduces waste in more ways than one.
Less Does Not Mean More
Another part of the electronic pollution problem is a result of inexpensive “box store” printers that often need replacing every year and end up in the landfill. Not designed for business use, they require more expensive toners (which are low yielding) and are required to be replaced more frequently. In the end, they cost the planet more than they are worth.
The solution is investing in a product made by an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) that offers products built to last and run more reliably.
While a home office printer with a low-grade cartridge may only print up to 1000 pages, a higher-end device that uses high-yield ink and toner cartridge will print 10 to 20 times more before the cartridge needs replacing and at not a significant cost difference.
Along with Canon, HP, Lexmark and Sharp, innov8
supplies suit for purpose commercial-grade office equipment that have extremely high reliability, and a lifespan of at least six or more years. Our service and repair team also ensures that fewer units end up on the scrap heap.
Once a machine has seen its last days, we clear all information before it goes to a recycling station for disassembly.
Looking at Canon’s Environmental Performance Calculator
As an authorized Canon dealer, innov8 is proud to offer the company’s fleet of office imaging technology. Canon has looked at ways it can conserve energy and resources and reduce hazardous substances. To do this, the company has devised an Environmental Performance Calculator that provides information and a general comparison on how much electricity, energy and CO2 is emitted from an existing fleet to a proposed fleet.
Some of the finding include a savings of:
- 249.3 kWh in electricity consumed
- 850,606 BTUs in energy consumed
- 25.99 in cost savings from electricity and paper consumed
- 171.8 kg less CO2 emitted
The result is an annual reduction of 59.9 percent in energy and 0.9 percent in cost.
Doing Your Part
There are several ways offices and businesses can be more eco-conscious when it comes to their business printing solutions. Our innov8 team recommends that you take these steps:
- Use the double-sided printing option
- Maintain your unit regularly
- Use the recommended toner and ink type
- Place equipment into sleep mode when not using
- Choose machines that have low wattage use
- Find units that have quick warm up times
Reusing Opportunities
What if you’re a small business that cannot afford a high-end copier or printer? You can still make a difference by looking into leasing or purchasing used equipment. Innov8 allows you to do both. In addition, our dedicated IT Support services can help with troubleshooting and repairs.
Avoid unnecessary disposal with office equipment that runs as it should. As BC's largest independently owned and operated printing solutions company, innov8 works with proven suppliers and has a knowledgeable and professional IT and service team to help you manage all your office needs. Contact us for more information.
