Mar 25 2008
Xerox Corporation today unveiled the industry's first Sustainability Calculator designed to help customers pinpoint opportunities to reduce their environmental impact while reducing costs. The new proprietary software tool measures the overall impact a company's document technologies have on the environment.
The Sustainability Calculator is the newest assessment tool available through Xerox Office Services. It evaluates the current office environment of printers, copiers and multifunction devices and then measures environmental benefits that could be achieved in terms of energy and paper use, solid waste, water, air and greenhouse gas emissions. This tool provides customers the first fact-based measurement of their environmental footprint.
“This calculator cracks the code to help offices of any size really understand just how ‘green' their offices are or could be,” said John Kelly, president, Xerox Global Services North America. “The same people who are environmentally conscious at home are starting to bring this awareness to work, but in many cases, they didn't know where to start. We designed the Sustainability Calculator to be an effective environmental assessment tool. It provides customers with actionable recommendations to help them achieve their ‘green' objectives and in doing so realize cost-savings and efficiency gains that come with an optimized office environment.”
The Sustainability Calculator not only tracks document technology from Xerox but also printers, copiers and multifunction devices from other companies.
For offices that want a quick assessment of their environmental footprint, a scaled-down version of the comprehensive calculator will launch today on Xerox's Web site. Visitors get a sneak peek at how the calculator can effectively help their company, regardless of its size. The quick Web-based assessment provides how-to tips and advice on smart ways to make offices greener.
Northrop Grumman Weighs in with Big Savings
For global defense and technology company Northrop Grumman Corporation the calculator was able to show one sector where it saved 27 percent in energy usage, 26 percent in greenhouse gas emissions and 33 percent in solid waste. This sector of Northrop Grumman had more than 2,000 printers, hundreds of multifunction printers and stand-alone copiers prior to leveraging Xerox Office Services - which optimized the office to less than 1,100 devices.
Xerox populated the calculator with metrics such as equipment specifications and usage patterns with the original number of devices. Following that, the calculator evaluated the new office configuration and was able to demonstrate areas where Northrop Grumman had achieved sustainability savings. Xerox will report metrics on Northrop Grumman's office equipment throughout the year as the company continues to simplify the office settings of six other sectors.
"Northrop Grumman is developing a variety of strategies to reduce our company's environmental impact," said Kraig Scheyer, vice president of administrative services for Northrop Grumman Corporation. "Xerox's Sustainability Calculator has been helping us in the area of office equipment to measure how far we've come, where we are today and where we need to focus our efforts in the future."
How it Works
The Sustainability Calculator employs proprietary algorithms and document assessment research to deliver data about a company's entire fleet of office products, from printers to multifunction devices and copiers, regardless of the equipment supplier. The Sustainability Calculator can also provide information on the impact of printing on two sides or using different types of papers. Preliminary testing of the calculator proves that customers realize both environmental benefits and cost savings.
After the initial analysis that generates a detailed sustainability evaluation of their operations, Xerox partners with customers to create an energy-saving office environment. Some of the changes can be as simple as moving devices to different locations to replacing personal and single-function products with multifunction products. The calculator can also detect opportunities for customers to become smarter paper users and to reduce waste. It provides information on the impact of duplex printing or using different paper stocks.
“The goal for the Xerox Sustainability Calculator is to point customers in the right direction, to identify opportunities where the reduced impact to the environment can be balanced with boosting the bottom line,” said Patricia Calkins, vice president of Environment, Health and Safety, Xerox. “We coupled our longstanding innovative leadership in the area of sustainability with our deep knowledge of the office environment to create a tool to help our customers save resources.”
Smarter Ways to Green
Xerox's focus on sustainability dates back more than 20 years and is woven into nearly all aspects of how it designs its products and selects its suppliers. Whether it is to develop an entire portfolio of sustainable paper or be one of the first to incorporate ENERGY STAR® specification into its products, Xerox partners with customers, suppliers and stakeholders to advance sustainable business practices. Some of the “green” programs and products being produced by Xerox include:
- Xerox's solid ink technology used in printers and multifunction devices use cartridge-free ink sticks that generate 90 percent less waste than laser or inkjet devices.
- Intuitive “power down” capabilities in Xerox's solid ink printers learn the printing patterns of an office and automatically shift into a low-power mode when it knows the printer will be in low use, like during the lunch hour.
- Emulsion Aggregation toner is a major breakthrough in laser-based printing — requiring less toner to be placed on a printed page while using 25 percent less energy to print than previous types of toner.
- High Yield Business PaperTM, created using 90 percent of a tree versus 45 percent of a tree typically used to create standard white office paper.
- Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certifications branded paper products that were manufactured using raw materials harvested from certified sources and can be tracked from harvest through distribution.
- Research and development projects underway inside of Xerox labs include the development of erasable paper that can be reused multiple times.
When combined, all of these efforts and alternatives will help customers reduce their use of resources, and ultimately their environmental footprint.