Sunday, July 20, 2008

Software saves trees, cash and headaches, says creator

Journal Entry #5
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/07/printing.green/index.html#cnnSTCText


This article introduces and explains the workings of a new environmentally friendly technology called GreenPrint. Developed by Hayden Hamilton, this new software actually analyzes what a computer sends to the printer. The computer user sets certain restrictions on what to print and then the software automatically removes these pages from the print lineup. This eliminates those annoying end pages where only a couple of words or a URL prints. In addition, there is a feature that allows the user to save the file as a PDF instead of printing, and provides options to save ink and toner. Overall, this can have a huge effect on how much paper we save. A statistic from the article states that the average employee prints around 10,000 pages a year! If that isn't enough already, about 20% (or 2,000 pages) are wasted. If employees used this product, then it could mean saving tens of millions of trees a year just in the United States. The project is still in its early days and reaches private users ultimately by word of mouth. This amazing program also tells users how many pages and how much money they have saved. The program costs only $35, which is a good deal when it costs about 6.5 cents per page. And now GreenPrint is offering a free version of the software for non-business use. 

I think this is an amazing program and I am so glad to see that someone did something about wasting printing paper. Innovation had led to this functional software that anybody can use. So it's no wonder that huge corporations from the World Bank, and Fortune 500 companies are testing the product to give feedback and improve the software on a larger scale. GreenPrint Technologies is such a big hit that it won this year's Oxford University's Venture Fund Competition. GreenPrint beat out 82 other stiff competitors, and received the prize of media attention and discussions of investment in the company (http://www.printgreener.com/press-releases/oxfordsbs.html). 

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