CIRCULAR ECONOMY
or C02 captured by 21 tree seedlings growing for 10 years, is realised over a five-year product lifecycle.” Nick agrees that remanufacturing is becoming more common as customers value the extended product lifecycles and reduction of waste. “Of course, this is provided products are developed on the right foundation of quality to cater to this,” he says. “Remanufacturing involves building new products using a combination of new, repaired and spare parts that would otherwise be disposed of or repairing existing products using said parts. Epson’s environmental vision of becoming underground resource free by 2050 is a key foundation for us in taking responsibility for this circular economy practice, not to mention the sustainability advantages it will offer our customers.” Reseller conversations When talking to customers, there are certain benefits of using printers designed with the circular economy in mind that resellers should emphasise. “There are environmental, societal and economic benefits of a circular economy,” says Wendy. “It is a way of using resources more efficiently and reducing waste. For example, circularity helps conserve natural resources, lowers energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, saves costs for manufacturers and customers, creates jobs and opportunities, and improves health and wellbeing. “A circular economy also supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for all.” Nick adds that resellers should emphasise the energy efficiency, low waste and low intervention of heat-free technologies available on the market. “But more than this, they should challenge customers to choose facts and data when opting for anything labelled as ‘sustainable’,” he says. “We’ve eradicated the ambiguity of this with our heat-free inkjet printers through the optimisation report, which calculates the energy, waste, CO2 emissions, time and cost saved when switching to heat-free inkjet from equivalent laser devices. And to ensure impartiality, this is all measured using data collected by independent assessor DataMaster Lab.”
Trends The trend for customers being more aware of the circular economy in print solutions is set to grow in the coming months and years. “Current trends indicate a growing demand for balancing print deployments in the office to ensure optimised usage and minimal waste,” says Nick. “The new deployment of print has been aggressively shaped and moulded through years of changing post-pandemic work environments, and its key for resellers to be able to offer the full breadth of print and scan speeds, functionality and size to tailor solutions for their clients, not limit clients to ‘what’s available’. If they can achieve all of this while offering customers savings on energy, waste and user-intervention, then they’ll be difficult to rival.” Wendy adds that resellers should look to provide visibility of carbon footprint and energy consumption to support customers with their reporting requirements and achieve their sustainability goals, with analytical dashboard solutions such as Xerox MPS Advanced Analytics. “There is also a strong pull towards sustainability in tenders and RFIs with criteria becoming more heavily weighted, including products with third party ecolabel certifications such as EPEAT, Energy Star and Blue Angel,” she adds. She adds that there is also a preference for third party certification to evidence external certified quality control of the process to deliver no compromise performance and capabilities and distinguish from a basic dust off certification, which may not provide the same user experience and peace of mind. “[For instance] Xerox Certified Pre-Owned device customers benefit from the total ecosystem experience including Xerox technology, MPS, workplace cloud, software, visibility, security and service,” she says. Sophia adds that, in time, TD SYNNEX expect the circular economy will become a part of every product lifecycle. “It’s going to be a huge opportunity for partners and one that we are ready to help them take,” she says.
Sophia Haywood- Atkinson services director, UK
uk.tdsynnex.com
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We are already talking to several vendors about bringing their programmes to market and while the initial activity is likely to be focused
on laptops, we’d expect
other products – including printers and MFPs – to follow soon after.
”
printinthechannel.co.uk
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