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We started looking at the tools that have been created to help reduce carbon,

create more energy-efficient machines and processes and help organization

find a more sustainable method of doing businesses.

We decided to take this opportunity to look at some of the unique and

innovative tools and services original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)

are brining to the industry..

Innovation in

Green

+Hewlett-Packard Gives Away GreenHP has focused on the green movement even before there was a green movement. One of the

things that impressed us most was the amount of green resources HP gives away…for free.

HP Smart Web Printing, available on HP.com, allows you to take full control over your Web printing by selecting text and graphics from multiple Web pages and print only what you want, eliminating wasted ink and paper.

HP Green IT Action Plan for printing: a guide that outlines a step-by-step approach to help IT leaders develop a plan that reduces the environmental impact of large office printing. According to an April 2008 survey by Forrester Research, only 20% of enterprise IT professionals did not have an overall plan for implementing green IT practices.

HP Carbon Footprint Calculator: HP’s was easily-accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, calculated fleets consisting of HP and non-HP devices and was extremely user friendly offering an individual product comparison, quick printer fleet evaluation and a comprehensive printer fleet evaluation. HP’s carbon calculator can estimate printer energy, paper usage, consolidation of devices, applying energy saving technologies, the carbon impact of usage and the estimated monetary costs.

+KYOCERA’s Unique Technology Gives Life to ECOSYS

In 1986, KYOCERA’s management group clearly stated that, “The environment will become an important consideration from now on.” In an age where the term “ecology” did not even exist in Japanese, the ECOSYS project was started. KYOCERA has been the creator of ecological products and ECOSYS stands for ECOnomy and ECOlogy linked with SYStem.

KYOCERA was the first to utilize the Amorphous Silicon Drum in small business printers, replacing the OPC drum type that had been used until that time. Compared to the OPC drum, which consumes surface resin at a fast pace, the hardness of amorphous silicon drums allow a lifespan 30 to 50 times longer.

The amorphous silicon drum can print 300,000-500,000 pages before needing changing, while an OPC drum requires changing after 30,000-50,000 pages. Its “toner only” design greatly reduces the effort and time required for changing parts.

Because the user only replaces a simple toner cassette when the toner runs out, KYOCERA machines produce far less waste than machines that use all-in-one print cartridges.

+Xerox Invents Duplex PrintingOne of Xerox’s biggest contribution to the environment could arguable is the

introduction of double-sided printing.

In 1969, Xerox introduced the 7000. This was the first Xerox duplicator to make two-sided copies manually. Then in 1970, Xerox offered the 4000, the first in the second generation of copiers and duplicators that were the first to provide automatic two-sided copying.

The manufacturing of paper costs much more energy than it takes to print or copy. That’s why duplexing is so important to the environment. Life Cycle Analyses on office equipment have shown that —considering energy at all stages of production, life and disposal— saving paper really is the prime target for the office. Furthermore the cost of paper is also much higher than the cost of electricity used by the equipment.

+Toshiba Getting Creative with

Carbon•Carbon emissions produced during the design, manufacture and everyday use of Toshiba multi-function printers can now be offset through a plan that helps villagers in Kenya reduce their own carbon footprint.

•The African Energy Efficient Stove project, run through the independent British organization CO2balance, supplies domestic stoves that cut the use of firewood by more than half. Each cooker typically prevents three tons of CO2 emissions every year.

•With Toshiba’s carbon-free MFPs, 4,000 Kenyan households have already switched to this energy efficient method of cooking and the scheme’s success means that 30,000 stoves could be installed by the end of the year.

•Installing the more efficient stoves doesn’t just benefit the environment: it also helps reduce the 1.6 million deaths each year that the World Health Association identifies as associated with smoke inhalation.

•In June, Toshiba TEC Imaging announced one of the most creative carbon offsetting programs yet, which will be rolled out across UK and Ireland.

+Ricoh’s Tivoli Solution Powers Down Energy Costs

The Tivoli Intelligent Device Manager is an advanced device and printing management system developed by IBM in partnership with Ricoh. Through a licensing agreement with IBM, Ricoh is able to bundle the IBM and Ricoh software together with its multi-function products.

The solution can help offices with tracking and monitoring, reduce print-related costs, improve service and cut back on a customer’s carbon footprint. It can also help offices by turning off MFPs at the end of the workday.

If a Tivoli PC agent is installed, a command can be sent to the MFP to shut it off or lower the power state when “connected” PCs log off. So, when employees turn their PC off for the day and printing for the day has come to a halt, the MFP will receive this information and power down.

+Canon Pioneers

BioplasticsIn October of 2008 Canon and Toray Industries announced the development of a bio-based plastic that is heat-resistant enough to be used in the exterior paneling of copy and fax machines. Produced using raw materials extracted from plants, bio-based plastics are extremely beneficial in terms of reducing environmental burden.

Canon and Toray, through the establishment of a new material design and molding technologies, were able to develop “Ecodear”, a high-performance bio-based plastic. Ecodear is the world’s first bio-based plastic applicable for use in multifunction office systems to achieve 5V classification under the UL 94 flammability-testing program.

Accordingly, potential applications will no longer be limited to internal components, and the plastic may be used for panels and other external parts that require high level of flame resistance. According to Canon there is approximately 20 percent less CO2 produced during production when compared with petroleum-based plastics.

+Lexmark Designs with the

Environment in MindWhen Lexmark was formed in 1991, they immediately started the Design for Environment (DFE) Program, a product development program with green practices. DFE is a series of checkpoints to make sure the products they manufacture are meeting Lexmark’s Product Environmental Specifications (PES). PES goes beyond product development, and they hold outside suppliers accountable to their specifications as well.

Lexmark Life Cycle Assessment Program is the process utilized to assess the potential environmental impact of a product and guide development decisions. It is an audit of the entire life cycle of a product beginning to end, from the ‘cradle to the grave.’

By selecting materials that are recyclable, reducing the number of parts, limiting materials being used and designing products to be easily disassembled, Lexmark has made sure the materials used in their inkjet and laser printers are more than 99 percent recyclable.