The purpose of this project is to provide support for a duplex (double-sided) printing and photocopying policy at UW. The proposed policy recommendation includes the following components:

1. All new shared printers and photocopiers purchased for use at UW must be duplex capable, and purchasers should endeavor to obtain high quality machines and paper which will duplex quickly and without problems such as paper jams. To support this, information about duplex capable machines will be provided on the UW Purchasing website.
2. All shared printers and photocopiers will be set to duplex by default, except in offices in which simplex documents are frequently needed, as long as best efforts are made to keep as many shared machines set to duplex as possible.
3. UW community members should support duplex printing and photocopying by accepting and using duplex documents (exams, papers, handouts, forms, and documents) whenever possible. In this vein, UW Copy Centers should provide a price incentive for using the duplex option.
4. Information about duplex printing will be provided to departmental computer administrators and signage will be provided for posting near shared printers and photocopiers so that users will be aware of the policy and how to use the duplex and simplex options.

The total quantity of paper currently consumed at UW is difficult to measure due to the decentralized purchasing and use of paper throughout the university of 3 campuses and over 70,000 full time campus users (FTCU). In order to calculate benchmark and future quantities of paper consumed, university departments will need to record and report their annual paper purchases to the person or group responsible for sustainability indicators, most likely ESAC. It will be easier and more accurate to account for paper purchased at UW than to attempt to record the number of pages printed by all campus printers and photocopiers.

A conservative estimate of UW paper use is 625 tons per year. This is the approximate volume of paper purchased by UW from Office Depot alone, based on purchasing data from January 2007 through April 2007 and extrapolated to a year with some decrease assumed during the summer. Office Depot is the major supplier of paper to UW, but it is not the only one, so this figure represents the minimum total paper consumption. This figure closely matches the weight of paper sold by University Stores, which was 640 tons in 2005. Most of the paper sold at University Stores appears to come from Office Depot. A third figure that provides some information about paper consumption at UW is the paper used by UW Copy Center machines, which includes Copy Centers, coin-operated photocopiers, pay-to-print stations, and photocopiers leased to departments throughout campus. Total paper use by machines controlled by the Copy Centers is at least 500 tons per year.

Based on the minimum paper purchases of 625 tons per year, reducing paper consumption by 20% would save the university at least $180,000 per year on paper purchases alone. This value assumes an average cost of $36 for a case (5000 sheets) of multipurpose office paper made with 30% recycled content. A 20% reduction in paper use is feasible; the City of Seattle reduced its paper consumption by 21% from 2004 to 2006. If duplex printing and photocopying increases by 40% (for instance, from 10% to 50% of documents), paper consumption will decrease by 20%. This reduction in paper consumption would also save 10,600 trees, 41.5 billion BTUs of energy, 3,100 tons of greenhouse gases, 20 million gallons of effluent flow, and 256 tons of landfill waste.

No financial resources will be required to implement this policy because even if departments spend a little more on quality duplex capable printers and photocopiers, they will regain the cost in reduced paper use. Most available large volume printers and photocopiers are already duplex capable. The main cost of implementing this policy will be time and effort by departmental computer system administrators to change the default settings on shared machines.

According to survey results, a majority of campus community members prefer duplex printing, but duplex printing rates remain low due to existing obstacles. Once these barriers are removed, those users will be able to print duplex. When duplex becomes the default setting, it will be more convenient to print duplex than to print simplex. Campus users who are indifferent will be likely to use the default option, again increasing the fraction of documents that are printed double-sided as UW paper consumption declines. When users become accustomed to duplex as the default setting, printing and copying (whether duplex or simplex) will become second nature. Everyone will be able to choose to print simplex documents, but the default will be duplex.

While a duplex printing policy would be ideal, if UW administration is unwilling to endorse it, a campaign to encourage voluntary participation could make some impact on paper consumption. Information disseminated to departmental decision makers and computer administrators would provide data on the potential financial and environmental savings associated with reduced paper use, how and where to buy the best duplex capable machines, and how to change defaults to duplex.

The main indicator for this project will be paper use per full time campus user (in reams per FTCU), an indicator listed in the Framework established by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). This number will be comparable with other universities because it is normalized by the number of people using campus resources. It will also allow the university to track its progress over time while controlling for changing campus population, and it can be used continuously as further paper saving techniques are applied in the future. Other indicators that follow from the principle indicator are number of trees saved, energy reduction, greenhouse gas reduction, effluent flow reduction, and landfill waste reduced. The City of Seattle website provides the resources to account for the environmental savings associated with reduced paper use. Calculations can be performed according to these guidelines.

City of Seattle Paper Cuts program

UW Catalyst WebQ survey tool

UW Publications Services (Katy Folk)

Office Depot (Tom Burns, sales representative to UW)

UW Recycling Program (Pat Kaufman)

U.S. Department of Energy, Environmental Energy Technologies Division

State of California, Integrated Waste Management Board

UW Waste Characterization Study

U.S. Office of the Federal Environmental Executive

University of Maine Waste Reduction Policy

Northumbria University Printing Policy