By Pete Middleton

Last month, IS&T installed a tool on staff PCs to enable them to see the cost of their printing.  From next week, we’re deploying it in a slightly different way so that the information will display on the desktop by default on log in –  staff will no longer have to open it up themselves.

It’s quite an eye-opener:  When we piloted this in IS&T, it sparked a lot of conversations about how much printing we do and which types of printer are more cost effective.  Because this shows the cost of all the printing done since April 2012, The total amount may be a bit of a shock for some staff and we hope it will encourage people to think more carefully each time they hit the print button.  We’re also looking into ways to represent the information in terms of the number of trees and the amount of energy and carbon used to help everyone to consider the environmental impact too.

For more information and details about printing costs, staff can see these FAQs.  They can also click the printing information link in the Papercut box on the desktop.