Copy This: Xerox Smells Market for New, Green Machines
Xerox Corp., marketer of hulking copy machines and reams of paper that get thrown out, thinks it has come up with a neat money-making mantra in an era of mounting environmental concerns: Less is more.
Xerox isn’t exactly a newcomer to sustainable ideas—it started double-sided printing in the late 1960s—but it is among the latest firms looking for a place on the green bandwagon. The new idea? A “sustainable calculator” that lets Xerox customers figure out how much energy and paper they are throwing away with printers and the like. Early reactions call the idea “not much of a needle-mover,” but it is part of the wider move among all kinds of companies to clean up the back-office before they start preaching green out front.
It’s all part of the “growing interest in green IT,” says Patricia Calkins, vice president of environment, health and safety. But while server farms may be in the eye of the hurricane for their energy use, the copier humming in the corner hadn’t attracted as much attention—until now, Xerox hopes. “What gets measured gets managed,” Ms. Calkins says.
Xerox’s customers are already feeling their own pressure to reduce energy and paper consumption, and Xerox is only too happy to try to meet their needs. It’s marketing “high yield” paper, made using more bits of the tree, which is akin to newsprint. That’s one way to cut into office profligacy: Xerox says 45% of printed matter ends up in the trash before a day is out.
In the R&D lab, Xerox is working to perfect its next big thing: self-erasing paper. The first version self-erased after 24 hours, whether the user wanted it or not. The next generation paper, still under development, will wipe itself clean just before being fed back into the tray.
Just like Toyota, with its Prius hybrid, Xerox hopes green concerns will open a market for a whole new generation of premium-priced metal. Most office gadgets like printers and copiers sit idle 98% of the time. But if Xerox can convince customers to replace existing machines with new “multi-function” products that do it all, customers save on energy, paper, service, and inventory. And by “taking old hardware out of the system,” as Ms. Calkins puts it, Xerox sells loads of snazzy new machines.
I like the idea of a sustainable calculator because putting waste facts based on real numbers in your face while copying makes one think twice about using that extra paper. Self-erasing paper however, is insane. Am I the only one that can see some issues with this crazy idea? The R&D to work that one out sure seems to be more wasteful than it could possibly be worth.
This is just the 21st century’s version of changing the fins on this years Cadillac–No quality increase, just sell those darn copiers! What copier uses more $ of electricity than it costs? Why not just change the software in the existing machines? And then advertise the phony claim that CO2 reductions change the climate. Xerox et AL should advertise that copying useless Documents “Sequester” carbon– the government could fund it self with the carbon credits from ever more paper work
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Environmental Capital provides daily news and analysis of the business of the environment. It tracks how growing green concern, particularly over climate change, is roiling established industries and spurring new ones – and how that shift is affecting investors, consumers and the planet. The Journal's Keith Johnson, who spent the past decade reporting from Europe, increasingly on energy issues, is the lead writer. The Journal’s Jeffrey Ball, who has covered the auto and oil industries and now covers the business of the environment, is the blog’s editor and a contributor. Environmental Capital also includes contributions from others at the Journal, WSJ.com, and Dow Jones Newswires. Write us at 
