Business Info - issue 137

01732 759725 magazine 29 European companies could save a collective € 176 million on energy bills and over 333,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions over four years by switching from laser to Epson inkjet technology, claims Epson following the publication of its first European Sustainability Report . It says that UK businesses alone could cut their electricity bills by almost € 33 million. Epson bases its calculations on the fact that its business inkjet printers consume up to 96% less energy than comparable laser devices and produce up to 99% less waste thanks to long- lasting consumables, including high capacity ink bottles and RIPS ink sacks. According to The Green Choice Report , up to 92% fewer CO2 emissions are produced in the sourcing of raw materials and the manufacture of RIPS sacks than in the manufacture of laser cartridges. When Epson Europe analysed the impact of these benefits over a four-year period, it worked out that European customers who bought an Epson business inkjet in 2016 and 2017 can look forward to collective savings of € 22.2m on electricity and a 42,000 European businesses saving millions on print costs metric ton reduction in CO2 emissions – the equivalent, it says, of taking 8,994 cars off the road for a whole year. Rob Clark, Senior Vice President at Epson Europe, told Business Info that these figures have added weight because they have been validated by a third party. “Two years ago, and again last year, we ran a campaign in Germany talking about electricity savings and CO2 emission savings. At the time, there was only our word to go on, so we decided to get third party endorsement.We went to TUV and said this is what we are doing, please tell us if we need to change anything in the methodology. They made some tweaks and we now have a methodology certified by them that we can use to calculate energy and CO2 emissions savings for EMEA, a single country, a reseller or even a single deal,” he said. DanWogan, Product Manager, Market Development Business Imaging at Epson Europe, says that the scale of the savings highlighted resonates with businesses that are showing renewed interest in sustainability. “We’ve seen interest in sustainability increase quite considerably over the last couple of years, starting in Germany and gradually spreading across Europe. We are finding that the proposition of sustainability, low emissions and low power consumption is being taken up more and more as a reason to purchase. Of course, we have to be commercially competitive, but, where we are, the sustainability message tips the balance for many people, because they believe they ought to be buying into sustainable technologies,” he said. Epson still sells laser devices for customers that want a mixed printer fleet, but Rob Clark says that the expansion of the business inkjet range, which now includes 100ppm devices and covers 70% of the laser and inkjet market, means that they are becoming less of a requirement. “We do still have lasers in the business, but our future is inkjet.We are investing very, very heavily in inkjet and all our development work is in inkjet. If the customer decides they don’t want to go in that direction they can always choose from our laser range, but it is not something we push,” he said. Nor, Clark argues, is it something that end user customers are greatly concerned about. “When we ask resellers how people react to having an inkjet rather than a laser device, they say ‘We don’t tell them because as long as it produces the print they are looking for, in the time they are looking for, they don’t care what the technology is. They care about the sustainability message’,” he said. www.epson.co.uk/vision-and- strategy#green-choice http://eco.epson.com/ Epson’s first European Sustainability Report highlights the environmental and financial benefits of business inkjet devices The scale of the savings highlighted resonates with businesses that are showing renewed interest in sustainability Epson recently extended its WorkForce Pro MFP and printer range with new A4 and A3 models for busy workgroups. The new models include three A4 mono devices boasting the highest ink yield in their class (40,000 pages) and three A3 colour devices for customers that don’t need the very high print yields of Epson Enterprise or RIPS devices. in brief Ink on demand Network Group, a buying group for technology resellers, has launched a pay-as-you-go ink replenishment service for Epson inkjet printers and MFPs. Available via the group’s 71 reseller members, the 360ink programme ensures registered customers never run out of ink by monitoring ink levels and alerting them when it is time to buy a replacement. The user can order a new one via the alert and opt to pick it up from a store or have it delivered to their door. 30 million and counting Epson has sold more than 30 million high capacity ink tank printers worldwide since introducing its first high capacity model in October 2010. The use of extra large ink tanks significantly reduces the cost and environmental impact of printing. For its 2018 Financial Year (ending in March 2019), Epson plans to sell 9.5 million high capacity ink tank products, partly by encouraging more businesses to switch from laser to inkjet printing. New factory To support increased sales of office, commercial and industrial printers based on Epson PrecisionCore printheads, Epson has built a second print chip factory in Japan. The 46,915 square metre factory at Epson’s Hirooka Office centre in Shiojiri will run in tandem with Epson’s existing PrecisionCore facility at the Suwa Minami Plant, tripling production capacity and ensuring greater business continuity and resilience. SUSTAINABILITY