The research, by Loudhouse, found that 77 percent of respondents said their print volumes had increased or stayed the same in the past twelve months.
The survey into attitudes to printing and the environment among UK office staff and IT Managers, shows that the average office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of paper per year, of which 6,800 are considered to be “wasted”.
According to the study, culprits for wasted paper include failing to use the duplex function, leaving printouts forgotten on the printer and unnecessarily printing duplicate documents.
“Given the above it is unsurprising that 39 percent of respondents felt that they could print less than they currently do,” said Kyocera.
It added: “Among IT managers, many of whom are at the coal face of cost reduction measures, 70 percent felt that their organisation could operate a greener and more efficient print policy.”
40 percent of people questioned described themselves as “paper people”, preferring to read documents on paper rather than on screen. Kyocera says this indicates that despite the increasing availability of alternative technology such as tablet PCs and e-readers, our love affair with the printed page is far from over.
The survey also showed that paper recycling remains the dominant approach to mitigating the impact of printing, with 78 percent of organizations ensuring that they have facilities available.
The second most popular tactic was the inclusion of “think green, do you need to print this out” footers on emails, with 55 percent of organizations endorsing this approach. However, the research also found that 58 percent of people responded negatively to such entreaties, branding them “ineffective” at best, and “pointless and patronising” at worst.
A more stringent approach such as an official print policy ranked, much lower, at 24 percent while proximity based printing systems were a feature in only 22 percent of organizations.
When asked about printing personal documents on company devices, 76 percent of respondents admitted to doing so, with six percent printing out non-work related documents every day. The main reason is convenience, although 28 percent of respondents also unsurprisingly cited the fact that printing in the office is “free”.
Tracey Rawling Church, Director of Brand and Reputation at Kyocera UK, said: “Increased paper consumption is a cause for concern from both financial and environmental standpoints. Our survey shows that there is a will among office workers and IT Managers to reduce the amount of printing carried out, but there seems to be a lack of clarity about the way.
“There are technological solutions to problems such as unnecessary simplex printing and forgotten printouts which eliminate human error, but levels of adoption seem to be low.