In May 2021, the campus announced a SUNY initiative to reduce printing and reduce printers across the entire SUNY print landscape. SUNY called on all campuses to participate in this effort establishing a system-wide printing resource use policy. SUNY Oswego has been participating in this initiative and we wanted to provide an update on our progress.
Based on pre-pandemic baseline metrics established for our campus, SUNY Oswego was printing on average more than one million sheets of paper per month. A progress report from mid-October to mid-November 2021 indicates our printing was down approximately 60% compared to the baseline metrics. This has been a great accomplishment, which we attribute to a few factors: 1) a move to digital solutions during the pandemic, 2) members of the campus printing less, and 3) the reduction of printers in various departments. While this reduction is representative of only one month, we expect that future progress reports will be similar or even better as we continue to work on the project.
While we have made good progress, the SUNY Oswego print initiative team still has more work to do to achieve some of the SUNY goals set in the policy. Specifically, they will be focused on the following:
Reduce the printer fleet
To date, the SUNY Oswego print initiative team has partnered with various departments on campus to reclaim approximately 40 printers. Many were old and were recycled. The team will continue to meet with departments to consolidate printers to a multi-function device such as a departmental Bizhub.
Printers locally attached to a computer such as a USB printer as well as single-function color printers are no longer allowed per the policy and must be removed. Ink cartridges for these printers will no longer be purchased. Toner cartridge p-card purchases should be pre-approved by Purchasing.
Anyone who has a USB printer or other printer they would like to have removed can create a ticket for CTS to pick up.
Reduce volume and color printing
While we have reduced print volume, we’d like to continue to provide tips for those items that must be printed, especially reducing color printing. Color printing is our highest cost and progress in reducing it was relatively flat compared to baseline metrics.
- Print double-sided pages (duplex setting)
- Remove unnecessary blank pages from documents
- Print in black and white whenever possible
- Check your print settings every time you print as any changes you make persist to the next printed document.
Provide more digital solutions
Reduce printing on campus by seeking other digital options. For example:
- If you need to sign a document, you can digitally sign documents with your signature using Adobe Acrobat DC. There are tutorial videos on the Fill & Sign feature.
- Refrain from printing just to have a hard copy if it is not needed. Departmental O: drives are available as well as your own Google Drive to store documents digitally.
Move existing maintenance contracts to Toshiba
SUNY awarded a print contract to Toshiba for purchasing new printers and servicing existing printers. The SUNY Oswego print initiative team will be working with SUNY and Toshiba in regards to shifting existing contracts to them.
Reevaluate student print quotas
Student print quotas were reduced from 400 pages to 200 pages effective Summer 2021. LakerPrint student printing for Fall 2021 semester was down 73% compared to the fall 2019 semester. We appreciate the efforts of the faculty who helped reduce the amount of student printing. The print initiative team will be re-evaluating student printing to see if any further reductions can be made.
We’d like to thank the campus for the many contributions that have been made thus far to help reduce printing at SUNY Oswego. In addition to the cost savings, there have been environmental impacts. The 60% reduction achieved in the one month last fall semester mentioned above has meant a savings of ~1,273 reams of 100% recycled paper, 49 million BTUs of energy, and 62,000 gallons of water.
Regards,
Members of the SUNY Oswego Print Initiative Team:
Nicole Decker, Associate Director, Campus Technology Services
Steven Denbleyker, Purchasing Assistant
Mitch Fields, Associate Vice President for Facilities Services
Victoria Furlong, Vice President for Administration and Finance
Karen Hurd, Purchasing Associate
Sean Moriarty, Chief Technology Officer
Michael Pisa, Associate Director, Campus Technology Services
Katherine Spector, Sustainability Planning Coordinator
Becky Waters, Assistant Vice President for Financial Operations
Wayne Westervelt, Chief Communication Officer
Citation: Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Paper Network Paper Calculator Version 4.0. For more information visit www.papercalculator.org.