The Energy Efficiency Council, in partnership with CitySwitch, has undertaken ground-breaking research detailing how office-based businesses can significantly reduce their energy costs and environmental impacts, which we’re told is “often by making simple choices such as which type of technology and equipment to use”.
The council released, at 11am today, a detailed, 17-page report entitled “Navigating a dynamic energy landscape: a briefing for office-based businesses” and says the report is “underpinned by new research about where these businesses should and can focus efforts to reduce energy consumption and operational expenditure”.
Billed as “ground-breaking research” that is “the first of its kind in Australia”, we’re told the report “identified energy and cost-saving opportunities for office-based businesses and particularly office tenancies, a sector that often gets less attention in the movement towards more sustainable buildings”.
“This means that office-based businesses may be wasting energy while operating this type of equipment as they are unaware that some equipment options are much less efficient than others. For example, some inkjet printers use up to 90% less energy and power than comparable laser printers”.
Epson Australia MD Craig Heckenberg said, “Printers and copiers account for the largest power draw of any single device after computers and servers. If a business is looking to reduce its operational expenditure and improve its environmental footprint, then investing in inkjet printers, particularly when they use 90% less electricity than laser printers, makes a lot of sense on every level.”
The research finds much room for improvement, with lighting still making up the greatest proportion of energy use within office tenancies, but only 60% of the surveyed tenancies having undertaken a LED upgrade, making it a significant opportunity to reduce electricity bills.
Similarly, while other substantial energy-using equipment – like air-conditioning and computers – are covered under the E3 and MEPS programs, many offices would benefit from undertaking targeted equipment procurement programs that preference six-star plus purchases or leases.
Luke Menzel, Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Efficiency Council said: “IT equipment accounts for almost half the energy consumption in an office tenancy, yet printers and servers don’t have energy performance labelling, making it much harder for consumers to make the energy efficient choice at time of purchase”.
The “Navigating a dynamic energy landscape: a briefing for office-based businesses” report was launched online today at 11am with leading Australian businesses highlighting how they’ve adopted smart energy management to reduce costs and improve environmental performance.
Naturally, Epson is keen to highlight its excellent Epson WorkForce Pro WF-C878R model, which uses energy efficient, heat-free inkjet technology.
The video embedded below is from an Australian Epson event in mid-November entitled “LAUNCH EVENT VIDEO: Epson’s trio of Q4 2020 launches a triumph of print, laser TV and FastFoto app style” which showcased a range of new Epson technologies, and which had a fantastic visual demonstration, complete with energy meters, showing just how much more radically energy efficient and how much faster Epson’s heat-free inkjet printers are compared with its even own brand of laser printers.
Epson is of course a decades-strong, globally leading technological powerhouse from Japan, focused on “driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics”, and has long been making “contributions to realising a sustainable society and its ongoing efforts to realising the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals”.
The Energy Efficiency Council is “a not-for-profit membership association for businesses, universities, governments and NGOs.
“Founded in 2009, the Council’s members are diverse, but are united by a common cause: building a sophisticated market for energy management products and services that delivers”:
- Healthy, comfortable buildings;
- Productive, competitive businesses; and
- An affordable, reliable and sustainable energy system for Australia.
The Energy Efficiency Council says its job is "to make Australia a global leader in smart energy management". To this end, the Council works with its members and partners to:
- Drive ambitious government policy by advocating for smart energy management policies and programs that deliver for all Australians;
- Support business decision making and growth with trusted, impartial information on energy so that businesses have confidence making the right energy management investments; and
- Ensure quality with standards and professional development by supporting standards development and benchmarking for the sector, and training and professional development for professionals across Australia.
