Toshiba Study: Office Workers More Conscious When Printing

One million tons of recovered paper is enough to fill more than 14,000 railroad cars. (Stock Photo)

Most office workers do consider the environment before printing out documents, a new study shows.

In an online survey of 800 British office workers, 57 percent often or always decide against a paper hard copy because it takes a toll on the planet.

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But the research, conducted by office equipment manufacturer Toshiba, also reveals a persistent demand for printed documents such as emails or maps and directions. About a quarter of the eco-conscious workers surveyed would click “print” if they could eliminate the environmental impact.

Toshiba’s answer is a carbon offset program that supplies villagers in Kenya with stoves that reduce the community’s need for firewood by half, with each wood-burning cooker eliminating 3 tons of CO2 emissions annually. The company expects to offset the carbon associated with 1 million printed pages.

Conservationists suggest other ways to minimize the eco-impact of office printing such as the use of recycled-content paper sourced from sustainably managed forests and double-side printing.