Offices go green

In August, office workers around the world shuddered when an Australian scientist reported that some office equipment might be more hazardous than smoking. The study tested emissions from printers in actual office environments and discovered that 17 of 62 models produced ultrafine particles small enough to be inhaled deeply into the lungs and to enter the bloodstream. Other studies have determined that such particles contain ingredients harmful to human health, with some suspected of causing cancer.

Environmental groups and government agencies long have been concerned about the hazardous materials used to manufacture office products. And, it’s not just printers that contribute to poor indoor air quality and other health and environmental concerns. Some fax machines, copiers, scanners and multifunction devices also are suspect.

As a result, government purchasers in Massachusetts, as well as other concerned supply management professionals in the public and private sectors, are specifying office equipment that better protects office workers and the environment.

Environmental impacts

While the potential adverse impacts of office equipment on indoor air quality have attracted the most attention recently, purchasers are becoming increasingly concerned about the effects of these products throughout the entire product life cycle. This integrated approach includes the potential impacts from raw material extraction, manufacturing, shipping, use (including operation and maintenance) and recycling or ultimate disposal.

• Prime environmental concerns for purchasers are:
  
• Improving energy efficiency.
  
• Avoiding hazardous materials.
  
• Reducing consumable waste.
  
• Ensuring that products are properly recycled.
  
• Improving energy efficiency.
  

Office electronic products, including computers and imaging equipment, consume 26 percent of the energy used in a typical office building. Specifying energy-efficient products that meet the U.S. Energy Star standard can reduce energy consumption—and the corresponding financial and global warming impacts—by up to 40 percent.

In order for Energy Star office equipment to produce financial and environmental benefits, the Energy Star features must be enabled. Enabling these features permits the equipment to power down automatically into an energy-saving hibernation mode when the equipment is left unused for a short period of time.

Many public- and private-sector purchasers regularly require office equipment to meet the Energy Star standard. Arizona, California, Delaware and New Hampshire, for example, all require the purchase of Energy Star products.
Massachusetts takes its requirements a step further. In its most recent office equipment contract, the state
required vendors to deliver products with the Energy Star features already enabled. This requirement helped reduce installation time and ensured that Massachusetts would benefit from the equipment’s Energy Star power management features.

Avoiding hazardous materials

Until very recently, almost all imaging equipment was manufactured using a variety of materials that can behazardous to human health and the environment. While generally safe for end users, the materials can pose health and environmental risks during manufacturing and disposal. Increasingly, products are available without the extremely hazardous materials and without contributing to potentially hazardous indoor air pollution.

Purchasers, including those in Massachusetts, are specifying that products do not contain:

• Cadmium. Used in batteries, surface-mount device (SMD) chip resistors and semiconductors, cadmium exposure can cause brittle bones, lung damage and kidney disease.
  
• Lead. Most commonly used in solder, lead is a cumulative toxin that can cause damage to the nervous system, reproductive system and kidneys.
  
• Mercury. Used in LCD and flat-panel displays, switches and printed wiring boards, exposure to high levels of mercury can cause chronic brain and kidney damage.
  
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Found in equipment cabling and housings, PVC is difficult to recycle, and the material releases dioxins and furans during its production and incineration. Dioxin is known to cause cancer and also can cause skin problems, reproductive disorders and developmental effects.
  
• Brominated flame retardants are used in plastics, circuit boards, cables and connectors to reduce the risk of fire. Studies have shown that brominated flame retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) may be endocrine disruptors that interfere with human hormone functions.
  
• Hexavalent chromium. Used to protect untreated and galvanized steel from corrosion and to harden steel housings, hexavalent chromium, even in small concentrations, can cause strong allergic reactions and even may cause DNA damage.
  

Reducing consumable waste

In addition to the energy that office imaging equipment consumes, the products also require significant quantities of paper, ink and toner to operate. In fact, over the life of the product, the consumables frequently cost more than the original equipment.

According to the Responsible Purchasing Network’s Responsible Purchasing Guide for Office Electronics, the average office worker uses more than 100 pounds of copy paper every year. Buying office equipment that defaults to double-sided copying can reduce average paper use by 40 percent. To help reduce its paper consumption, Massachusetts requires equipment to be delivered with the double-sided feature as the default setting.

Agencies also are transitioning away from ink-jet printers on every desk to higher-quality networked laser printers. With networked printers, a group of employees shares a printer, which significantly reduces the volume and cost of ink-jet cartridges. Because up to 30 ink-jet cartridges may be required to produce the same output as a single laser cartridge, laser printers generally cost less to operate.

To further reduce costs and improve environmental performance, many agencies are using remanufactured toner cartridges. The remanufactured toner cartridges cost 30 to 60 percent less than new, offer the same performance and frequently come with the same warranties as new toner cartridges. King County, Wash., saved $450,000 in one year by buying 7,500 remanufactured toner cartridges.

Information about King County’s remanufactured toner program, including copies of its contract language, is available at http://www.metrokc.gov/procure/green/tonecart.htm.

Ensuring that products are properly recycled

Electronic waste currently comprises 5 percent of the country’s waste stream and, according to some estimates, is increasing three times more rapidly than any other waste stream component.

To reduce the impacts associated with office imaging equipment, government purchasers are beginning to specify products that have been designed to be easily disassembled and recycled rather than discarded. Some purchasers even are requiring manufacturers to take back products for recycling when they no are longer needed.

Massachusetts’ purchasers, for example, requested information on how to recycle imaging equipment and the consumables associated with the equipment at the end of their useful life. Environmental considerations were 15 of the 100 total points in its evaluation. Recycling-related issues contributed one-third of the environmental score.

Standards and certifications

The Responsible Purchasing Network encourages purchasers who are interested in buying more environmentally preferable office imaging equipment to reference the Energy Star and EcoLogo standards.

Energy Star—energy-efficiency standard

The federal government’s Energy Star program establishes energy-efficiency standards for a wide variety of energy-consuming devices, including office imaging equipment. Currently, there are more than 1,000 Energy Star-registered copiers, printers, fax machines, scanners and multifunction devices from dozens of manufacturers. A complete list of Energy Star-qualified products is available at http://www.energystar.gov.

It is important to note that Energy Star does not require products to be shipped with the Energy Star features enabled. The Responsible Purchasing Network encourages purchasers to follow Massachusetts’ lead and require suppliers to activate the energy- and cost-saving features as part of the purchasing requirements.

EcoLogo—beyond energy efficiency

Founded in 1988, EcoLogo is North America’s oldest environmental standard-setting and certification program and the only one accredited by the Global Ecolabeling Network as meeting the ISO international environmental labeling standards. EcoLogo has standards for 150 product categories and has certified more than 7,000 products.

The EcoLogo standard for office machines (CCD 035) recently was revised to combine and update earlier standards for copiers (originally established in 1998), faxes (1998) and printers (2001). The standard was revised in an open, public, transparent process over a 14-month period that included the input of public- and private-sector purchasers, environmental nonprofit groups, government agencies, environmental professionals and manufacturer representatives.

The updated standard covers copiers, printers, fax machines, multifunction devices and mailing machines. Rather than focusing exclusively on energy efficiency, the EcoLogo standard includes 17 criteria, such as: requirements for reduced air emissions during use; restrictions on manufacturing with hazardous substances; design for extended use; requirements to offer collection and recycling of toner cartridges and other consumables; and paper-saving and energy-efficiency requirements.

Products are audited against the EcoLogo standard by independent third-party auditors. Products meeting the standard then are recognized as EcoLogo-certified products.

The EcoLogo Web site—http://www.ecologo.org—includes a copy of the standard and identifies more than 1,000 EcoLogo-certified office equipment products from well-known manufacturers such as Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta, Lexmark, Ricoh, Sharp and Xerox.

Companion standards

In addition to the Energy Star and EcoLogo standards, GREENGUARD has an office electronics standard with requirements to protect indoor air quality. The standard requires extensive testing to ensure that products meet specified requirements. Currently, there are no products certified under the GREENGUARD office equipment standard. Visit http://www.greenguard.org for additional details about office equipment standards.

The Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is considering developing an office imaging equipment standard. EPEAT is best known for identifying green desktop and laptop computers and monitors. More than 600 registered computer products from 23 manufacturers are listed on EPEAT’s Web site: http://www
.epeat.net.

EPEAT is currently seeking funding to expand into several new categories of electronic products, including imaging equipment, servers, televisions and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already has pledged some funding. Additional details, including a standard development schedule, should be available by the end of October.

Pathways to locating earth-friendly products

Despite scary news articles from Australia about life-threatening office equipment products, safer, more environmentally preferable office equipment is widely available. Professional purchasers just need to know where to look.

Information provided by the Responsible Purchasing Network and the Energy Star and EcoLogo programs helps purchasers identify high-quality, affordable and responsible imaging equipment. These resources offer ideas that each of us can scan, copy, print and share.

Recommended resources

• EcoLogo—http://www.ecologo.org—provides information about 150 EcoLogo environmental standards and 7,000 certified products, including 1,000 certified office equipment products.
  
• Energy Star—http://www.energystar.gov—offers information about hundreds of energy-efficiency standards and registered products, including more than 1,000 office equipment products.
  
• EPEAT—http://www.epeat.net—identifies computer products meeting the EPEAT environmental standard and provides information about forthcoming EPEAT standards, including a potential standard for office imaging equipment.
  
• GREENGUARD—http://www.greenguard.org—provides a copy of the organization’s indoor air quality standard for office equipment.
  
• King County EPP Program—http://www.metrokc.gov/procure/green—includes useful information on King County’s green purchasing program, including its standard and experience with remanufactured printer cartridges.
  
• Responsible Purchasing Network (RPN)—http://www.responsiblepurchasing.org—provides details about membership, which allows access to RPN’s Responsible Purchasing Guides, including a guide to electronic products. The site also features a database of office products meeting the Energy Star and EcoLogo standards.

About the author

Scot Case has been researching and promoting responsible purchasing issues for 15 years. He currently is vice president of TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, which manages the EcoLogo program to identify more environmentally preferable products. Case can be reached via e-mail at scase@terrachoice.com or in Reading, Pa., at 610-779-3770.