Yes, says David Finn, Managing Director, Kyocera Mita Australia.
Working closely with Ian Kiernan and Clean Up Australia, as with partners such as Corporate Express, David explains how improving sustainability and helping the environment can save your business money:
“We’re in a time of great change within the I.T. industry – and this change is offering great opportunities for businesses.
“If you’d asked people five years ago to predict the biggest impetus for change within the printing industry for 2009 and beyond, I doubt many would have picked the environment.
“Sustainability isn’t mandatory yet – but it will become so. And businesses can’t afford to be complacent or they will be left behind as consumers vote with their feet.
“The customers I speak to are increasingly concerned about these issues and there’s a definite attitude shift within their organisations to change their purchasing towards sustainability. And that’s creating a parallel shift within the I.T. industry to provide sustainable products.
“For instance, our new generation of printers emit negligible amounts of ozone and our customers really like it; we’ve seen a massive volume sales increase in this style of printer. When we tell them that this new technology is RoHS compliant* and at least six hazardous materials are excluded, they’re very interested.
“That wouldn’t have been the case several years ago,” he says.
How Business can become “Green”
In surveys conducted by Kyocera Mita Australia, it became clear that while people are environmentally responsible at home, they’re often confused about what to do in the workplace.
“They often get the stage where they’re exasperated and about to give up. This shouldn’t be so, because there are many ways businesses can incorporate green policies into their every day operations which will not only save them money, but make them a more appealing vendor to customers and a more sustainable entity,” says David.
“It can be as simple as separating your waste into three bins – one for recyclables, one for paper and one for general waste. We’ve done this, and we’ve saved 27 per cent on our waste disposal costs internally. And installing movement sensors on our lighting, so lights are turned off once everyone has left the room, has slashed our electricity costs.
“There are other options for businesses and retail outlets as well – such as installing solar panels which can return power back to the electricity grid. The Kyocera Corporation office in Kyoto, Japan, is a great example of this.
“We believe in getting involved with worthwhile environmental partners. Kyocera is a Community Partner of Clean Up Australia and we’re proud of the work we’ve done with them over many years to make Australia a cleaner country.
“It was with their guidance that we were able to win ARN’s Green I.T. Vendor of the Year 2007 and for myself to named ARN’s Green Crusader 2007 – awards voted on by our industry peers.”
Won’t going ‘Green’ cost my business too much?
“Companies are often worried that buying green will add cost to their bottom line. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When the Kyocera Corporation in Japan was established in 1959, we set-up an environmental platform long before it became fashionable and we continue to work towards improving the long term impact we have on our planet.
“We wanted to find ‘greener solutions’, and so we made our hardware and consumables recyclable. We also operate our own e-Waste collection programs in Australia to ensure that our products don’t ‘cost the earth’.
“For example, typical printers and copiers create huge amounts of waste because the drum and developer are built into the toner cartridge. Every time you change the toner, you replace the drum and developer – even if they don’t need replacing.
“Kyocera’s print drums are made from long-life patented amorphous silicon, which means you only need to replace the toner itself. The shortest drum life in a Kyocera device is 100,000 pages; at the end of life, you can choose to replace it or recycle the printer!
“Consumers are surprised to find out that the overall running cost of a laser printer over its lifetime is likely to exceed the original purchase price by several times. Kyocera equipment can be about 30 per cent to 50 per cent cheaper to operate than others on the market, due to the environmentally-friendly nature of our products.
“For example, over three years, a single Kyocera workgroup mono laser printer costs about $8,000 to run. Non-Kyocera equivalent printers at around the same purchase price cost around $18,000 to run, over the same three year time span.
“This really does go to show that buying environmentally-friendly hardware can lower your ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO for short). Savvy buyers shop for the cheapest running costs, rather than just the cheapest purchase price.
“To help Corporate Express customers find out how much they can save, we’ve developed an online TCO calculator which will quickly and easily show the savings that can be made. The calculator can be found at
http://kyoceramita.com.au/tco.asp
“Our simple message to business is “SAVE THE EARTH”, and by doing so, you can also save money!”
*The RoHS Directive stands for "the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment". This Directive bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.
