Sustainability
Columbia Print is committed to reducing its environmental impact by incorporating many sustainable practices into everyday operations. Help us drive this effort by choosing one of our green options during your next order.
Printing
All University stationery is printed on 100% recycled paper.
We use 100% recycled paper for black and white copies. We use 30% recycled paper for all other printing requests.
All toner is recycled - meaning 100% is diverted from the waste stream.
Our equipment partner, Ricoh, is one of Global 100’s Most Sustainable Companies in the World. Ricoh has received numerous other awards and accolades for their sustainability as well.
PrintReleaf
Columbia Print has partnered with PrintReleaf, a company that measures paper consumption and automatically converts the total into trees planted at certified reforestation sites around the world. Through the partnership, every print project will result in the equivalent planting of trees – restoring forests and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
View the dynamic PrintReleaf dashboard below to see Columbia Print’s paper consumption in pounds alongside the number of standard trees reforested through the program. The dashboard updates in real-time as new orders are entered in.
For more information about the partnership, read the announcement here. To learn more about PrintReleaf, visit printreleaf.com.
Copier Program
As standard practice, we use 100% recycled paper for black and white copies.
We electronically process thousands of transactions annually via our centralized Copier Program, significantly reducing the amount of paper used previously with external vendors (for invoices, PO’s, change orders, etc.)
We have partnered with Columbia University Procurement to decrease the amount of printed invoices via digital scanning.
We bill electronically for all client work.
Columbia Print is no longer printing copier charge statements. To review your monthly charges, go to ARC FDS Reporting to see charges in the “Transaction Description/Vendor Name” column. Charges for copier maintenance are debited to account #63290 and charges for copier lease fees are debited to account #63293. For more information, please contact us at [email protected].
We participate in Ricoh's toner cartridge recycling program. To recycle multiple containers in their original carton boxes by printing a pre-paid label, visit the Ricoh website: www.ricoh-usa.com/recycling.
The Columbia University School of Nursing and the CUIMC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology were featured in Ricoh's Sustainability Success Stories publication. Learn more about how the departments reduced their environmental impacts through its collaboration with Ricoh and Columbia Print.
Transportation
Environmentally friendly vehicles (hybrid, electric and clean diesel) are used to deliver and pick up all print materials.
Reduce your personal impact:
Set your printing devices to print double-sided (duplex). 13oz of water are used to create a single sheet of paper. 500 sheets (1 ream) = 50 gallons of fresh water saved. Double-sided printing takes virtually no additional time. If we saved 1,000,000 sheets of paper (2,000 reams) in a year by double-sided printing, the result would be an estimated reduction of 21.4 tons of annual carbon dioxide equivalent.
Use your department copier instead of a personal printer to reduce energy consumption (electricity) and save money (printers cost more per printed sheet than copiers). Confidential documents can be printed on your department copier securely by utilizing the user code functionality. Ask us how. Copiers are multi-function devices that can reduce your equipment fleet by eliminating the need to have separate faxes, scanners, and printers.