The green office

If you are concerned about the environment and you work in an office, this is for you. Whether you own the business or manage it, you can make a difference to your office environment — and a green office matters enough that the Australian Government publishes guidelines for it, in the Green office guide.

What office equipment costs the environment

From that guide: a photocopier can cost as much as $4,000 to buy, and over seven years may consume $1,500 in electricity, $15,000 in toner and $24,000 in paper. The greenhouse gas emissions from that energy, paper and toner run to more than 80 tonnes — comparable to an average Australian household over the same period.

Buying green office equipment is a start, and the savings run further than emissions: electricity, telephone lines, air conditioning and consumables all come down with it.

Fax machines

Given our business, our focus is on making the traditional fax machine redundant. A fax machine is inactive much of the time unless it is part of a printer or similar, and it uses the electricity, paper and consumables of a printer on a smaller scale — how much depends on how many faxes you send and receive. Taking it out of the office and moving to online fax is a step towards a greener one.

UTBox and the environment

We offer fax broadcasting and online fax services, both of which remove the office fax machine and the assumption that every fax received becomes a printed page. The proposition is straightforward:

• Move towards a greener office environment
• Save money
• Improve productivity

It is no surprise that a number of government departments already use UTBox for their online fax requirements. The green office checklist sets out the government’s purchasing criteria for fax machines and how the service meets them, or talk to us about a 30-day trial.