In a story datelined Sunday, June 15th, PC World has a story by Patrick Thibodeau of Computerworld headlined "San Francisco Goes Green, Limits Printing". The article describes the City of San Francisco's plan to meet the environmental responsibility goals regarding the city government's information and communications technology, set forth by mayor Gavin Newsom in February.
The article describes a pilot program aimed at reducing paper usage by 20% that includes simply (?) eliminating personal printers and forcing users to "print down the hall" to a departmental or workgroup, and then relying on user behavior to re-prioritize the importance of printing when the time to walk to the shared printer is taken into account.
SF's CIO Chris Vein offers a not-unfamiliar list of print-reducing or print-eliminating steps including the aforementioned shift away from individual to shared printers, plus "...the availability of tools that make it easy to fax without paper and create PDFs, and the development of a centralized document management system will all help the city meet that goal."
The city is to date not including the savings in supplies and hardware in their goals, but the data (per the article) indicates a .44-cent-per-page cost for SF's paper, so the unaccounted-for portion should be much greater than that.
The article describes a pilot program aimed at reducing paper usage by 20% that includes simply (?) eliminating personal printers and forcing users to "print down the hall" to a departmental or workgroup, and then relying on user behavior to re-prioritize the importance of printing when the time to walk to the shared printer is taken into account.
SF's CIO Chris Vein offers a not-unfamiliar list of print-reducing or print-eliminating steps including the aforementioned shift away from individual to shared printers, plus "...the availability of tools that make it easy to fax without paper and create PDFs, and the development of a centralized document management system will all help the city meet that goal."
The city is to date not including the savings in supplies and hardware in their goals, but the data (per the article) indicates a .44-cent-per-page cost for SF's paper, so the unaccounted-for portion should be much greater than that.
Comments
Good catch on the article - and nice reflection.
Leave it to "San Fran" to innovate on the "bleeding edge" of Green...