Wasted Print: Is it a hidden cost in your business?

The impact of wasted print on an organisation’s sustainability goals and financial costs can be huge. As a Managed Print Services provider, we often find we can save our customers a significant amount by putting in some processes that aim to reduce the amount of wasted documents.

In this blog, we will first look at the impact of wasted print and then offer some solutions to help overcome this challenge.

One of the most significant aspects of wasted print is the impact on the environment. As we’ve discussed previously, the paper industry significantly contributes to deforestation, and the paper production process uses many valuable resources. Reducing wasted print can only have a positive impact on our environment.

Businesses must also consider the financial implications of wasted print. After all, printing is not free, and you must consider the costs of paper, toner, and the maintenance of machines alongside the cost of disposing of documents that are no longer needed. Reducing this waste can lead to significant savings for your organisation.

Document security is now a critical factor in many businesses. If employees printed documents are not retrieved from printers, it can lead to sensitive information falling into the wrong hands.

With sustainability, cost saving and data protection all critical focus areas for many organisations, let’s look at ways to regain control of your wasted print volumes.

Adopting digital processes and transitioning from physical to digital document management systems is an obvious solution. Encouraging employees to save and share documents electronically using cloud storage and digital signature solutions can significantly reduce the need to print and help to improve the security and accessibility of sensitive data.

While digitalisation is a great way to reduce wasted print, we also know that many businesses need more time to move away from physical printing. So, what steps can these organisations take to reduce their waste?

A simple way is to set clear printing policies. With a managed print solution, rules can be implemented that limit colour printing, utilise double-sided printing and reduce the number of pages that need to be printed with documents like e-mails. Ensuring employees know these policies is also a great way to get everyone on board.

When we install a managed print service, we will offer our clients print monitoring software, which allows them to track and analyse their print operation—getting insights into who is printing what and why can help you to identify areas for improvement and where new policies might be required.

We’ve already mentioned employee awareness, but educating and training employees is crucial in reducing wasted print. Carrying out training sessions to teach employees about both the financial and environmental impact of excessive printing can make a real difference. We can even schedule pop-up messages asking your team whether they need to print this document.

A further step from print monitoring is ‘print on demand’ – this allows documents to be retrieved from any network device only when at the machine. Users can even cancel documents or correct any errors before printing. Aside from reducing wasted print, a print-on-demand solution is excellent for productivity and document security.

When printing can’t be avoided, ensuring you use recycled paper and energy-efficient units can all make a sustained impact – joining a reforestation scheme like Print Releaf also means you are offsetting the necessary pages.

At Parallel, we offer all our clients a regular audit to ensure they are optimising their operations to identify areas for improvement – we advise our customers on the best way to control the costs of their printing whilst still allowing their users to have the tools they need to do their jobs,

Reducing wasted print in businesses is an ethical and financially sound decision. Companies can significantly reduce wasted pages by embracing digital solutions, setting clear policies, educating employees, and implementing sustainable practices.

Parallel Office and Document Solutions are a managed print services provider based in Uxbridge; we assist companies across the UK with more flexibility and transparency with their print contracts. We offer a free print audit of your situation – to book one, please complete our Contact Us form, and one of our team will be in touch.