ENVIRONMENT

Green Policies

Country  Business Machines aims to promote sustainable development and profitable growth. We integrate environmental, economic and social perspectives into our business strategies so that our business activities are implemented in harmony with human lives and with the environment in all aspects.

 

Our concept is to make steady progress toward the resolution of environmental challenges based on quantitative measurement and analysis of reliable data in regard to environmental performance and impact.

Green Features

At Country Business Machines, we’re constantly working to reduce our environmental footprint and improve its efficiency. Here are a few of the earth-friendly innovations we’ve developed to help stay green.

 

Simitri Polymerised Toner

 

Today, 99.6% of Konica Minolta’s colour toners and 96.5% of its monochrome toners are polymerized – the highest rates in the industry. Simitri HD polymerized toner has considerably less impact on the environment during its production, use and recycling. Its biomass content is actually C02 neutral during recycling. Konica Minolta’s constant efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its cutting-edge technologies while improving their efficiency are obvious in various earth-friendly innovations.

 

Konica Minolta’s Simitri Polymerized Toner achieves an approximately 40% reduction in CO2 emissions during production, as compared with toners produced by conventional pulverization methods.

 

IH Fixing Technology: Konica Minolta’s Induction Heating (IH) fixing technology reduces power consumption during the fixing process and results in shorter warm-up time.

 

Optimal Power Control: The power in Konica Minolta devices is optimized for each operating mode, eliminating wasted power. For example, when the bizhub C650 and C550 print from PC or receive a fax, the power supply is adjusted so that no electricity is sent to the scanner or other idle sections.

 

Duplex Printing: When it comes to forest resource conservation, paper use reduction in offices is important; double-sided printing is an effective means of achieving such reduction. The bizhub C650/C550/C451 realize high-speed printing when outputting double-sided color pages, thanks to a paper feed control system that feeds three sheets alternately. This system offers productivity equal to single-sided printing, and makes it easier to reduce paper use in offices.

 

Toner Recycling System

 

Original Toner Recycling: Our original Toner Recycling System collects, recycles, and re-uses toner that is not transferred to the paper during the printing process in multifunction productions. This results in saving 20% of the toner from going to waste without reducing image/print quality.

 

Outer Casing Plastics: The outer casing parts for every Konica Minolta Multifunction Product are made from the same two types of plastic, creating a closed material-recycling loop for recycling plastics from end-of-life Multifunction Products and incorporating them into the production of newer models. With this process, we have enabled the recycling of high purity plastics, recycling approximately 100 tons of plastics annually.

 

Toner Cartridge Recycling

Country Business Machines sponsors Cartridges 4 Planet Ark.

 

Cartridges 4 Planet Ark is a free collection service for the recycling of used cartridges throughout Australia. The program is world-leading in its guarantee of zero waste to landfill from the recycling process.

 

green_features_3Collection Outlets

 

The public can deposit cartridges of any kind in specially marked boxes at participating Australia Post, Officeworks, Harvey Norman, Tandy, Dick Smith Electronic and Powerhouse outlets. A full list of collection outlets are listed at www.RecyclingNearYou.com.au

 

Collection Boxes

 

To be eligible for a collection box, your organisation needs to use a minimum of 3 imaging consumables (toner bottles, laser cartridges, drum units, fuser kits, inkjets etc) from ANY fax, photocopier or printer per month. Simply complete this form.

 

About Cartridges 4 Planet Ark

 

Australians throw away more than 18 million cartridges every year.

 

This amounts to over 5,000 tonnes of material, including laser toner cartridges, inkjet cartridges, photocopier toner bottles and drums. That’s why we want you to put them in ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ bin, NOT the garbage bin!

 

Planet Ark is working with Close The Loop®, an Australian hi-tech resource recovery company, to prevent these problems. The recycling technology is so advanced that nothing goes to waste. Almost 60% of the laser cartridges are sent to the original equipment manufacturers for their remanufacturing or component recovery programs. All inkjet cartridges, toner bottles and laser drums are processed to recycle their component materials into new products.

 

The component materials recovered include aluminium, steel, plastic, toner, ink and foam. All are recycled into new products or reused in new applications. Even residue toner is reused as pigment for colouring plastic products.

 

For more information visit www.cartridges.planetark.org

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

 

Six Simple Ways to Reduce your Carbon Footprint

  1. Assess all office equipment. Outdated models tend to use more energy. Upgrading your old office equipment with new devices can make a big difference to your energy consumption. Old technology can often be a big drain on energy usage. Refreshing your office with more energy efficient equipment can dramatically reduce your overall carbon footprint.

 

  1. Compare the energy rating on any new office equipment upgrades. Choose your new equipment carefully. The Energy Star label is an international standard for energy efficient office equipment including computers, printers and photocopiers, and home electronics. Make sure that the energy saving features are enabled on your new equipment, you can save money on your electricity bills and help the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Office Guide produced by Commonwealth, State and Territory environmental agencies has some great information on choosing green office equipment.

 

  1. Check that you are making good use of all the environmental features of your equipment. While your multifunction device or printer is only one of the types of office equipment you’re likely to have, there are many features you can make use of on this one piece of equipment alone, to reduce your carbon footprint

 

Duplex printing and copying saves time, paper and costs by printing/copying on both sides of a sheet

The “N-Up” printing option offers the possibility of combining several pages of a document on a single sheet of paper. If used for draft documents and archiving, this clever feature can help save toner and paper and with that saves resources

Documents can be scanned, saved, shared and distributed electronically. This highly automated functionality saves users time and energy.

Proof-print a single test page or set before printing or copying the whole job. Saves paper, time and money.

 

  1. Look for the Forest Stewardship Council rating on office supplies. Are you using recycled paper? Look for Forest Stewardship Council accredited paper. All products carrying the FSC Logo have been independently certified as coming from forests that meet the internationally recognised FSC Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. Visit the Forest Stewardship Council Australia www.fscaustralia.org for more information.

 

  1. Educate staff around wastage. Don’t print it if you don’t need too. Provide training for staff in the environmental capabilities of your office equipment and explain how they can contribute to protecting the environment. Choosing your equipment well and following its installation with training often positively affects staff morale and performance. Communicate about any new environmental systems that are introduced, and make instructions for participation in the new initiatives clear and easy to access.

 

  1. Implement a recycling scheme for paper and toner. Assess the amount of waste that is generated and what part of your operations produces the majority of this waste. Becoming a green office is largely about paper – reducing its use, reusing it, recycling it and buying recycled paper. While electronic offices may not be a reality yet, there are many steps businesses can take to reduce paper use. Toner cartridges also contribute to office waste. Australians throw away more than 18 million cartridges every year. Recycling programs like Cartridges for Planet Ark operate a free, easy and environmentally-accredited way to recycle used printer cartridges.

Eco Calculator

Replacing your current office Multifunctional Product with a new one can be more eco-conscious. Click the button to the left to calculate the reduction in energy costs and CO2 emissions.