Green Office Blog

As with most companies this year, Green Office is under immense pressure to drive cost reductions while generating sales to ensure that we are sustainable and will be around next year! Luckily for us, our purpose is to make business more efficient and sustainable, and that is exactly what we’ve been doing for our own business and are planning on doing this year and beyond.

Green Office has been in operation since 1997, starting out in a garage with only three people. We are now a fully fledged Managed Service Business focusing on driving efficiencies and sustainability initiatives to ensure that our clients don’t have physical, financial and operational waste.

Green Office will be focusing on delivering services within the following four towers:

1. Managed Print Services looking at all aspects of a print environment.
2. Digitalisation Consulting, Services & Technology
3. Cyber Security, focusing on identifying and managing vulnerabilities
4. Sustainability Consulting, through assessments and training, amongst other items.

Written by James Tooley in collaboration with Wilma O'Neill

What are the main pain points for retailers when looking at managing their print environment?

When it comes to your print environment there are a lot of things to consider, but in retail there’s not always time to:

• Look for the best price
• Manage your hardware, contracts and stock
• While managing a store and trying to cut costs, you still need to find a way to be more sustainable.

‘Going Green’, ‘Eco-Friendly’ and ‘Sustainability’ are all buzz words in businesses these days.  We take advantage of daily conveniences, without always considering the impact it has on the Earth’s resources.  Since inception, Green Office has prided itself in prioritising the environment.

It is estimated that over 1.3 billion printer cartridges are sold every year, and according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), more than 12 million laser and ink cartridges are imported into South Africa annually. 

The question is, how many of these laser and ink cartridges end up in landfills?

Did you know that more than 80% of all inkjet and laser toner cartridges used in South Africa are thrown away when empty?  This means that more than 12 million cartridges end up in landfills each year, taking up to a thousand years for each to decompose.  

For most end users, there is a lack of understanding on the difference between Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) cartridges and Aftermarket cartridges. What are the differences between them? This blog will assist you in understanding more about the differences in how these cartridges are manufactured.

Does it really cost only 6 cents to print a page?

Understanding the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your entire printing environment is the first step in knowing the true cost per printed page – which is usually nowhere near 6 cents to print a page!

Deciding on a printing device that will cater for everyone’s needs, but at the same time fit the budget, may seem impossible.  Most companies base decisions on the cost per page to determine the best option in terms of price.

Before figuring out what option works out cheaper, you must understand what exactly you need in a printing device to ensure you don’t pay for a whole lot of functionality you won’t use.  

Purchasing a cheap aftermarket laser toner cartridge all seems good and well on the pocket. However, this does not mean that it is necessarily as cheap as you think when printing on a cost per print basis.  

Understanding how the Re-manufactured Toner Cartridges world works, can assist in considerable savings for your business. You need to understand how this process works before making your decision to purchase.