Cleaner Greener China

A couple months ago, a sustainability director from one of the largest computer / computer accessory companies contacted me about their sustainability program, a conversation that focused on a few of their recent intiatives in the area of sustainability.

As part of a conversation with him, I brought up the fact that I owned one of their laser printers, and the fact that I believed they needed to improve the user interface software of their printers to make double side printing easier.That, while my printer was one that can technically only print on one side, but inserting a small piece of code on the front page of the print page, the process could be made much easier and I would be more likely to double side print.

It was a conversation that initially was focused on their products, but on a grander level it has lead me to ask the larger question of whether or not the problem I found was one only found with this brand of printer or was something that was characteristic of all printers on the market… and that, were this a wider issue,  then what I was looking at was an opportunity to work with a few firms (HP, Canon, Brother, etc) and highlight how a simple software issue was causing a HUGE amount of paper waste.

So, I need your help.

I need you to take a screenshot of your print screen (like the one you see above), and send it to me (rbrubaker [at] allroadsleadtochina.com).  It not matter to me if your printer can double side or not, what is important is for me to get a wide sample of experiences that readers are having with their printers.

Maybe I am over thinking this, or maybe I think that through this email I can bring about a simple change with a larger positive impact, but either way thank you for your time… and thank you in advance for any help.