User concern

Undeniably, making printer consumables more environmentally friendly has been increasingly driven by the market.

"It's been a gradual increase," HP South Pacific environmental manager, Annukka Dickens, said.

"The top three questions I am getting are around: Product recycling, that's still number one; energy efficiency is quickly catching up as number two; then number three is material content of products."

In the printer consumables space globally, HP's environmental organisation (not the entire corporation) fielded over 2500 questions last year regarding toner and ink cartridges. This represented just over half of all queries received, but Dickens claimed the total was mushrooming.

Fuji Xerox manager environmental sustainability, Amanda Keogh, said it had seen more environmentally-themed questions coming up in tender documents over the last 12-18 months.

"That applies not just in terms of paper standards but across the board with what we do in equipment take-back for example. And customers want to know a lot more about that now, and it seems to be a stronger purchasing criteria," she said.

However, Keogh noted companies wouldn't buy on the back of the environmental performance alone.

"But all things being equal, if one supplier is more environmentally friendly than another they will be impressed by that," she said.

"The environment theme is becoming stronger and stronger with our dealer network. We get more and more requests for information related to environmental sustainability, our performance in that regard and what we do for customers. So for us it is a case of transferring that knowledge and know-how to our dealers, and then also finding ways for them to leverage our sustainability performance as well."

Despite pressure to increase sales, vendors are starting to take heed of the need for environmental performance with printer consumables. Improved paper procurement standards, higher quality recycled paper, cartridge recycling, longer life drums, LED technology, more efficient toners and less packaging are just some of the steps being taken to improve environmental sustainability.

In addition, a Planet Ark-organised printer cartridge recycling program which guarantees a zero-waste-to-landfill outcome is being enthusiastically supported by several big vendors. While it was pleasing many of the big companies are on-board with the program, Planet Ark manager of recycling programs, Brad Gray, noted organisations are responding differently to becoming greener.

"There are lots of examples of small steps companies are taking," he said. "They're all steps in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go."