Imaging Equipment Makers Enhance Energy Saving in Europe

According to Angelnews, due to an industry self-regulation initiative adopted in 2011, the makers of inkjet printers and copiers for homes and small businesses have cut energy consumption by more than 20% in two years.

UK based leading engineering consultancy ERA Technology revealed in its latest Energy Efficiency Report that energy consumption from OM products was reduced by 20.8% between 2011 and 2013.The energy consumption of imaging equipment products sold between 2011 and 2013 has been reduced by 10.5%.

ERA Technology says the reduction of energy consumption resulted from the measures taken by all major manufacturers of the imaging equipment to decrease their environmental footprint under Voluntary Agreement on Ecodesign. Initiated by EuroVAprint, the association binding all European major manufacturers of imaging equipment, the agreement has 16 signatories.

EuroVAprint President, Maxime Furkel of Lexmark, said, “Our industry is a vivid example of how self-regulation can work in Europe. The Ecodesign measures provide the right conditions for industries to take universal and immediate action to reduce energy consumption. Our voluntary agreement allows different manufacturers to work together for energy saving targets and achieve immediate results.”

Signatories of the agreement are required to adopt measures to encourage the use of automatic duplex (double-sided) and “N-up” printing (several pages on one sheet) to save more paper. In addition, the agreement prescribes requirements for environmental information that needs to be made available to customers. Another advantage is that the administrative costs of the Voluntary Agreement are lower than European legislation which are directly borne by the industry rather than the tax payers.