Reducing printing units

Target 8.7: By March 31, 2013, each department will achieve an 8:1 average ratio of office employees to printing units. Departments will apply the target where building occupancy levels, security considerations and space configuration allow.

The government has a large and varied inventory of local printers and other single-function devices such as scanners, fax machines, network printers and photocopiers. The Printing Unit Reduction Target (Target 8.7) provides a multi-year approach to phase in printing unit reduction and migrate towards multi-function devices. The target will help shrink the environmental footprint of government operations through electronic waste management. Plug load reduction will help decrease GHG emissions.

Among the 27 departments, a total of 22 (81%) have already put plans in place to increase the ratio of employee-to-printing-unit to 8:1, ahead of the required timeline. Within the 19 departments for which data was available, at least 3700 printing units have already been reduced.

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