An overwhelming majority of small to medium-sized businesses have said they want to reduce the environmental impact of printing, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos and commissioned by Lexmark International.

The survey, involving more then 1,400 companies with up to 250 employees in seven countries, found that although SMBs are aware of the impact of paper on the environment – over half (54 per cent) think office paper wastage causes the biggest impact on the environment – their good intentions are not necessarily being put into practice.

Six out of 10 (61 per cent) SMBs surveyed reported an increase in the volume of printing compared to two years ago. Just 17 per cent of companies reported a reduction in the number of printed pages.

Half of SMBs (51 per cent) have said they have an environmental strategy in place.

Overall, reduction in printing was due to an increase in electronic communication (58 per cent), rather than greater awareness of cost or environmental impact (6 per cent).

SMBs should realise that reducing costs and implementing environmental strategies often share the same tactics and outcome, according to Francois Feuillet, general manager of Lexmark Middle East.

"At Lexmark, we offer solutions that help our customers minimize their environmental impact without compromising productivity," said Feuillet.

"We provide exactly what they need to get the most value from their printing infrastructure, in the context of creating a greener, more efficient working environment."

Lexmark is committed to helping businesses become greener and reduce their printing costs through a wide range of high-performance, eco-friendly and optimised output solutions.

Our environmental programmes focus on the design of printing solutions that better serve customers as well as the education of users on printing best practices, such as:

Use of two-sided and multi-up printing by default, and the sharing of printers; Preview of documents on screen before printing; Scan to e-mail or scan to disk when possible instead of copying pages; Use of only high quality cartridges and free cartridge collection programmes.

In 2007, Lexmark reported $5billion in revenue. - TradeArabia News Service