Being Green One Printer, One Toner and One Print at a Time

By, Paul Smith, center manager, Xerox Research Centre of Canada

I know you’ve heard of green thumbs – and maybe our scientists at Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC) have them – but they definitely have “green” on their minds because they have taken some pretty interesting approaches to printer sustainability including developing toners that save energy; inks made with bio renewable materials and printer components that have longer lives thus reducing waste.

Many of these innovations have recently resulted in XRCC receiving the Green Chemistry and Engineering award from the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering for developing environmentally friendly products and processes.  The award, presented in October, acknowledges how Xerox is helping our customers be green including: 

•   Ultra Low Melt EA Toner, which saves our customers on their energy costs
•  Low energy solid ink, with over 30 percent bio renewable content (such as corn, or soy or wheat) that can grow back quickly (as opposed to oil).
• The long life photoreceptor that’s in the ColorPress 800/1000, which lasts twice as long as the traditional photoreceptor

Being green by thinking green is not something new to Xerox and to be honest it comes naturally to us because of our history.

Xerox has been focused on environmental performance and sustainability since long before it was popular to do so.  In the 1980’s Xerox was the first company to introduce power-down features on its equipment to save energy, and the first to make two-sided printing a standard on its systems, significantly reducing paper use.  In the 1990’s, Xerox pioneered remanufacturing for office equipment and helped shape the EPA’s ENERGY STAR program for imaging equipment.  In 2008 we introduced the sustainability calculator.

Today, it’s the green minds at XRCC that continue to drive this leadership in sustainability as our chemists focus on inventing new sustainable materials, while our engineers look for environmentally friendly manufacturing processes.  This award acknowledges our past contributions and ongoing efforts in green materials and engineering.

Thanks to the society for recognizing our efforts and let’s hope customers adopt them so we truly can help our planet one printer, one toner and one print at a time.

Paul Smith is a Research director by day, family man by night and swim dad to his sons; . Before his work day begins, Paul’s up well before the sun rises supporting his kids during swim practice or packing up the car to take them to swim meets.