Printing Habits that Kill Business Sustainability (And How to Fix Them!)

Every business wants to be more sustainable these days. Whether you’re motivated by environmental concerns, cost savings, or simply keeping up with industry standards, sustainability matters. But here’s the thing: many businesses overlook one of the biggest sustainability drains hiding in plain sight—their printing practices.

That innocent-looking printer in your office? It might be sabotaging your sustainability goals one sheet at a time. The good news is that transforming your printing habits doesn’t have to mean radical change, increased costs, or sacrificing convenience.

Let’s take a look into the printing habits that are secretly undermining your sustainability efforts and explore practical solutions that will benefit both your business and the planet.

The Hidden Environmental Cost of Business Printing

Before we talk solutions, let’s get real about the problem. Paper waste isn’t just a financial drain, it’s an environmental one as well:

• Paper represents approximately 26% of total waste in landfills
• The average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper annually
• Most printed pages are viewed for mere minutes before being discarded
• Manufacturing paper is resource-intensive, consuming trees, water, and energy

What makes this particularly frustrating is that much of this waste is completely avoidable. Unlike some sustainability challenges that require major infrastructure changes or technological breakthroughs, printing waste can be dramatically reduced with simple habit changes and smart policies.

The 7 Worst Printing Offenders in Business

Let’s identify the printing habits that are silently sabotaging your sustainability efforts:

1. The “Print First, Proofread Later” Syndrome

We’ve all done it—hit print, walked to the printer, noticed a typo, and printed the whole document again. This habit alone can double paper consumption unnecessarily. When multiplied across an entire organization, those “quick reprints” create mountains of waste.

2. The “Everything in Color” Approach

Color printing uses significantly more ink than black and white. Does that internal memo really need those blue headers and green highlights?

3. The One-Sided Paper Phenomenon

Printing on just one side of the paper instantly doubles your paper consumption. For internal documents or draft materials, single-sided printing is an expensive luxury the environment can’t afford.

4. The “Just in Case” Printing Mentality

“I might need this later, so I’ll just print a copy.” Sound familiar? This “just in case” mentality leads to filing cabinets full of documents that will never be referenced again, all while their digital versions remain perfectly accessible.

5. The Forgotten Print Job

About 30% of print jobs are never even collected from the printer. That report you sent to print but forgot about when a colleague stopped by your desk? It’s sitting in the printer tray, destined for the recycling bin without ever serving its purpose.

6. The Personal Printer Problem

Personal desktop printers encourage impulsive printing and make it harder to track and manage print volumes across the organization. They’re also typically less efficient than modern multifunction devices.

7. The Font Fiasco

Not all fonts are created equal when it comes to ink and toner consumption. Those thick, bold typefaces might make a visual impact, but they significantly increase your printing costs with every character.

Smart Solutions: Making Your Printers Sustainability Allies

Now for the good part—how to transform these sustainability killers into opportunities for improvement:

1. Harness the Power of Default Settings

Most users don’t change printer settings between jobs—it feels like extra work. Use this to your advantage by configuring default settings across your organization:

• Default to black and white/grayscale printing
• Make double-sided printing the standard option
• Set draft mode as the default for internal documents

This simple change requires minimal effort but yields massive results. By making double-sided printing the default alone, you can cut paper consumption by up to 50%.

2. Embrace Ink and Toner Efficient Fonts

Did you know that the font you choose can significantly impact ink and toner consumption? Consider switching to efficient options like:

• Century Gothic (uses 30% less ink than Arial)
• Times New Roman
• Garamond
• Courier
• Ecofont (designed with tiny holes that save ink while remaining readable)

For everyday internal documents, font choice alone can reduce ink and toner consumption by 20-30%, extending cartridge life and reducing waste.

3. Implement Secure Printing (Pull Printing)

Secure printing addresses multiple problems at once. With this system, documents aren’t printed until the user authenticates at the device (usually with a badge or PIN code).

Benefits include:

• Eliminating abandoned print jobs
• Increasing document security
• Creating a natural pause that makes users reconsider whether printing is necessary
• Providing data on printing patterns that can help identify further optimization opportunities

Organizations that implement secure printing typically see a 10-30% reduction in print volume almost immediately.

4. Strategically Centralize Printing

While eliminating personal printers might meet with resistance, strategically placing efficient multifunction devices can reduce both energy consumption and unnecessary printing:

• Remove most personal printers except where necessary
• Place shared printers in locations that require a short walk
• Ensure these shared devices are energy-efficient models with advanced features

That short walk to the printer creates just enough friction to make users consider whether they really need a hard copy, while centralized devices are typically more efficient per page.

5. Leverage Document Management Systems

A document management system (DMS) turns your printers from sustainability problems into solutions:

• Enable digital workflows for approvals, signatures, and reviews
• Make documents easily searchable, eliminating “just in case” printing
• Facilitate easy document sharing without physical copies
• Create audit trails without paper records
• Empower employees to digitize existing paper documents

The right DMS doesn’t just reduce printing—it makes information more accessible while enhancing security and collaboration.

6. Monitor, Measure, and Motivate

What gets measured gets managed. Consider implementing print monitoring software to:

• Track printing volumes by department and individual
• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Set realistic reduction targets
• Create friendly competitions between departments
• Celebrate sustainability wins

Simply making printing data visible often leads to natural reductions as awareness increases.

7. Create a Print-Conscious Culture

Technology alone can’t solve printing problems; culture matters too:

• Provide training on digital alternatives to printing
• Make sustainability goals visible and celebrate progress
• Ensure leadership models good printing behavior
• Recognize and reward departments that reduce print waste
• Share the environmental impact of printing reductions in concrete terms

The Business Case: Sustainability That Pays for Itself 

The beauty of print sustainability initiatives is that they typically pay for themselves:

• A 20% reduction in printing can save the average 500-person company $25,000-$55,000 annually
• Secure printing solutions often pay for themselves within 6-18 months
• Document management systems improve efficiency while reducing costs
• Reduced printing means less storage space needed for documents
• Digital workflows typically accelerate processes that were previously paper-dependent

Moving Forward: Your Print Sustainability Action Plan

Ready to transform your printing habits? Here’s a simple action plan:

1. Assess your current state: Track printing volumes and patterns for 2-4 weeks
2. Identify quick wins: Implement default setting changes and font standardization
3. Develop a mid-term strategy: Plan for secure printing and printer consolidation
4. Consider long-term transformation: Evaluate document management systems and workflow automation
5. Communicate and educate: Share goals and progress with your team

Remember, perfect is the enemy of good. You don’t need to eliminate all printing overnight—start with the easy wins and build momentum.

Small Changes, Big Impact

Transforming printing habits represents one of the most accessible sustainability opportunities for most businesses. Unlike many green initiatives that require significant investment or disruptive change, optimizing print practices delivers immediate environmental benefits while reducing costs.

The humble office printer may not be the most exciting part of your business, but when it comes to sustainability, it offers some of the highest-impact, lowest-effort improvements available. By addressing these common printing habits, you’re not just saving trees—you’re creating a more efficient, cost-effective, and forward-thinking organization.