Facing the eco fax - technology must go green

Tag : Used Fax Machines


Globally, the need to consider the impact of technology on theenvironment is the basic premise upon which many operators withinthe ICT sector are constructing their strategies.


According to Walter Bredell, CEO at Integr8 FAX, part of theIntegr8 Group, the trend has now enveloped the burgeoningfax-to-e-mail space.

Primarily the motivation to organise and apply a’green’ technology strategy is based on a worldwideeffort to contain or save costs, says Bredell. Service providerswithin Asia, Europe, SA and the US are now positioning this aspectas a key selling point of solutions, he adds.

"Enterprise data centres are struggling to keep pace withincreasing power requirements for their infrastructures. Businessestoday need to invest substantial amounts of money to conserve andsustain power supply as well as reduce the amount of wastage. Upuntil very recently the fax machine was considered a chief culpritin this regard," says Bredell.

The reasons for this are clear, Bredell adds. He points to the factthat fax machines are usually left on continuously, and usually in’standby mode’, and the average power consumption ofthese devices is 8,15W.

"Fax machines on standby generate over 60 000 tons of carbondioxide. On average each fax machine receives three thousand faxpages a day based on fifteen faxes a day, of two to three pageseach. Each fax is copied at least once," says Bredell. "One treeproduces on average, 16,67 reams of paper (8333 sheets). Each faxmachine results in the use of 6000 sheets (fax transmissions andcopying). Therefore 1 432 857 trees are consumed by faxtransmission and copying of faxes each year."

Put into local context, the pressure on organisations to reducewastage is compounded by external influences of ongoing power cutsand load-shedding. These issues are forcing users to save as muchelectricity as possible.

This creates opportunities in the IT industry to improve theenvironmental footprint, throughout the life cycle, of all productsand services without any significant increase in price or impact onperformance.

"We are busy moving from power efficiency of products and servicesto energy efficiency of products and services," he adds."Fax-to-e-mail solutions today must improve the full life cycle ofenergy efficiency and the carbon dioxide footprint of a fax sent orreceived."

Whilst there has been some progress made in the development andintroduction of environmentally-friendly fax solutions, Bredell andhis team are under no illusions about the work that lies aheadwithin the market.

"There is no doubt that the market has matured in this respect. Wehave introduced a number of sought-after advantages, such as thefact that faxes can no longer be lost or sent to the wrongrecipients, e-mail systems are used to prioritise faxes, and thelatest technology is not limited by supply issues with criticalresources, such as paper or toner. There are no more paper jamsthanks to the latest e-mail-based solutions and all faxes areencrypted for security. However, much still needs to be done,especially in light of supply and adoption," Bredell concludes.