Greening Your Office with HP

This Earth Day, it was my mission to take serious steps towards greening my home office. While saving paper was the no-brainer approach, there is no escaping those documents that absolutely need to be printed in any office large or small. So, the next obvious choice is to look at greening your print habits.

Given that I have been using the HP Officejet Pro 8500 for a few weeks now, I am beginning to realize its merits as an ideal printer for small business or home office use. Not just because of its efficiency but also because it is a truly green option as far as printers go.  

The HP Officejet Pro 8500 all-in-one consumes up to 50% less energy than laser all-in-ones; For every 1,000 HP Officejet Pro 8500 all-in-ones used instead of laser all-in-ones, the energy savings is equivalent to keeping 6.5 cars off the road for 1 year. 

While laser printers might have a more seemless flow, inkjet printers use less energy overall. This is just the nature of the technology: placing ink rather than toner requires much less energy. The Officejet Pro actually offers the best energy savings in the HPlineup.  There are several reasons that contribute to why it makes perfect sense for eco-minded businesses: a very good “green” feature set, a 50% lower operating cost, duplexing standard, Ethernet (sharing) standard, Energy-Star rated.

I have been using a Canon inkjet AiO for some time, and have a natural inclination to compare the two. I find that the Officejet Pro Wireless has a lower power usage .  Canon also has individual ink tanks, but the capacity is not as high.

HP Corporation’s Commitment to Protecting the Planet

And as long as we are talking about brands, HP has taken a giant leap towards protecting the planet:

• In 2008 HP became the first major IT company to publish aggregated supply chain greenhouse gas emissions. First-tier suppliers representing more than 80 percent of their total product manufacturing spend reported the release of 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emissions.
• HP cut their global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from operations by 4 percent compared with 2007 levels in absolute terms and by 13 percent normalized to revenue. They achieved these reductions through the efforts of employees, many of whom participated in the Live Green campaign and took measures, both large and small, to shrink HP’s environmental impact. 
• HP recovered 3.5 million hardware units for reuse (34,000 tonnes) and recycled 120,000 tonnes of electronic products and supplies, an increase over 2007 levels of 16 percent and 6 percent, respectively. To date, HP has recovered more than 1.71 billion pounds of electronics products and supplies for reuse and recycling.

Impressed? You can read more about HP’s commitment to the environment in the comprehensive HP Global Citizenship Report for 2008.

Special Offer for Ecopreneurist Readers

Now for the good news. If you are interested in possibly purchasing one of these printers, then consider yourself in luck. HP has arranged a special offer for Ecopreneurist  readers to save 20% ($80) on the new HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One.

Click here for the coupon code and terms and conditions. Visit here for more product information. Coupon code and terms and conditions: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/coupon_info.do?coupon_code=PR8975.

Product information page for the HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One:  http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/CB023A%2523B1H?jumpid=ex_r602_wiki_ecopreneurist_ipg_apr09

Now try beating those savings in this economy!

And as a final piece of advice, if you are going green with your printing habits, consider going all the way by donating your used printer cartridges to FundingFactory.