Birmingham City Council achieve sustainable printing strategy with Kyocera and Altodigital

Birmingham City Council is the largest local authority in the UK and the largest council in Europe. 

The sustainability strategy for the city as a whole involves the council in scrutinising all of its own activities but also working in partnership with others to work towards sustainability.

Birmingham City Council is currently addressing the national sustainable agenda and is using Kyocera multi-function devices to help reduce its carbon footprint, its paper consumption and the volume of consumables used in the its printing equipment. They were also keen to reduce the amount of waste generated as there is a lack of landfill around the Birmingham area, highlighted in their sustainability policy. (Watch the video here)

Savings

Kyocera is one of four suppliers that supplies Birmingham City Council – the majority of the machines supplied being MFDs (multifunctional devices). The Council chose Kyocera because of price and superior back-up service and support which is provided by partner Alto Digital, the supplier of Kyocera equipment. In terms of MFDs, Kyocera’s green credentials all ticked the right boxes.

Councillor Paul Tilsey, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council said: “Birmingham City Council has a wide array of printing machines all taking cartridges at a considerable expense. Since installing the Kyocera multifunctional devices, we have not only saved in procurement, but also in running costs. The devices have also helped us in reducing our energy consumption so choosing Kyocera was a win, win, win situation.”

Before the MFDs were introduced, the council offices were crowded with many different devices, such as printers, copiers and fax machines scattered throughout the buildings. Now the MFDs have been deployed, the Council have found document management much easier as the machines do all the tasks they require and there is more space as the stand-alone machines have been replaced.

Birmingham City Council went through a very stringent process to select the suppliers which also included Sharp, Toshiba and Ricoh. Councillor Tilsey explained: “Kyocera showed that they had a much higher commitment to sustainability and we were therefore happy to work with them."

Support
Kyocera’s partner Altodigital has been providing essential maintenance and support for the MFDs that have been installed in the council. They proposed a Kyocera solution mainly because the environmental issue was key to the Council. Darryl Polden of Altodigital said: “When we looked through the criteria Birmingham City Council provided us with, Kyocera stood out.”

The council was concerned about its printing strategy because the majority of laser printers do generate do a lot of waste, the cartridges they use are made up of over 60 parts, compromising of numerous different types of material and nearly always end up in landfill. Kyocera’s toner cassettes are made up of only 5 components, all made of recyclable plastic and are easier and cheaper to dispose of, which makes a significant impact on Birmingham’s sustainability targets.

Targets

Councillor Tilsey continued: “We have a target to reduce our CO2 emissions by 60% by 2026. Both Birmingham City Council and Kyocera share the same ambitions and long term targets by reducing their carbon footprint and recognising the sustainability agenda, therefore our partnership is mutually compatible for all organisations.”

In addition to the environmental requirements, the cost, reliability of the machines and the service, support and back up were also key factors in the Council’s decision to partner with Altodigital and Kyocera.

Councillor Tilsey confirmed: “It’s saving us a lot of money, we have a target of £5 million by 2011 and we have already saved £3.1 million so it’s cost effective already.”

The council has looked at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of different devices in great depth and put a block on any new printer purchases. It has decreed that all council offices, schools and council-run organisations should use MFDs instead. It is the council’s aim that single function printers will only be allowed where the business requirement is essential and the rest will be MFD devices.

Since installing the Kyocera printers, the Council has found them to be reliable: “The printers have performed just as required,” says Councillor Tilsey. “Whenever we have had to contact Kyocera or Altodigital’s technical support team we have found that the problem is solved efficiently. We are now able to devote more budget to other areas due to the savings that we make on our printing fleet, which enables us to adopt new ways of more flexible working and ensure that we provide the best service for the community.”