CASE STUDY No. 9703 

KEY WORDS COMPUTER PAPER, COPIER PAPER

Columbia University
Administrative Information Services
116th Street & Broadway
New York, NY 10027

Contact: Tel: 212-854-1754 

Summary

University computer and copier departments make five simple changes in purchasing-printing routines and save more than $113,000 a year.

Action

Columbia University employs 9,000 faculty and staff and enrolls 17,000 students. The university computer and copier departments use approximately 5.5 million sheets of paper each year. The following five changes were made to reduce purchase and disposal of paper (as reported by the Waste Prevention Program of the New York City Department of Sanitation):

  1. Manuals. By purchasing computer manuals on disks and copying them for distribution to staff, Columbia saves $3,000 to $4,000 per year formerly spent on the purchase of 8,000 hard copies. This practice also eliminates approximately 9,600 pounds of paper waste.
  2. Report distribution. Many people at Columbia are on distribution lists for periodic reports. Each year, the production control group distributes a memo with each report asking the recipient to confirm whether the report is still needed. This has practice resulted in an estimated 8% reduction in computer paper usage, equal to 432,000 sheets (10 cubic yards) and an annual saving of $2,777 in paper costs.
  3. Covers. Eliminating the printing of a header page (cover sheet) from 18 of 45 mainframe printers reduced annual paper usage by 75,000 sheets, saving $2,250 in paper and toner. (Headers could not be eliminated from the remaining printers because they serve too many different groups of employees.)
  4. Electronic data transfer. The Office of University Publications prepares Columbia's employment ads--about 250 a year--for publication in New York newspapers. Previously the ads were sent by mail. Now the artwork is sent instantaneously via modem, saving $225 a year in paper and postage, not to mention saving in delivery time.
  5. Duplex copying. Double-sided (duplex) copying yields by far the biggest reduction in paper use and cost. Duplex copying is standard procedure at Columbia's two high-volume copy centers unless single-sided copying is specifically requested. To encourage two-sided copying, there is a per-page discount on a sliding scale relative to the number of copies made. About 60% of copy jobs are double-sided, saving 21 million sheets and $105,000 a year in paper costs.

Payback

None of the changes listed above required any investment other than the time to develop new procedures and educate users to new routines. Aggregate savings per year: $113,252.

Vendor Assistance

Columbia University encourages its vendors to participate in the waste prevention program and make suggestions for improvement. For a copy of the letter/questionnaire that Columbia routinely sends to new vendors, click here.

 

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