By Emily Shap
This year has been the year of green, ” Going green” to be more exact and almost every person and business has experienced the green effect. We all want to be greener in our lives. We purchase the canvas bags at our local grocery store, we think twice before we print out unnecessary reports at the office, and we turn off the water while we brush our teeth. Even teachers and managers are taking notice- sending daily, weekly, and monthly updates via email, saving countless pieces of paper. All this action in the name of being green.
Small business owners are no exception and also taking action, according to www.delwareonline.com, business owners in Delaware are helping the environment by heating their greenhouses with compost heaters and donating used restaurant fryer oil to owners of bio-fuel cars. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that businesses can help the environment buying recycled products, carpooling, replacing high-energy light bulbs, and refilling ink cartridges instead of throwing them away.
Small businesses who accept alot of personal checks are excited about First Data’s FD 200 point-of-sale system, just released last month, which is an updated version of the Eclipse terminal. The FD 200 is proving to be a “greener” version than the older check acceptance devices in the marketplace consuming less ink. According to www.firstdata.com, the new all-in-one terminal has two built-in printers. The thermal printer is used for customer receipts, and the single-line ink jet printer is used exclusively for voiding checks. Older check accepting point-of-sale terminals use ink jet printers for transaction receipts and check voiding. The addition of the thermal printer has proved to be cost effective for businesses. The thermal printer’s only consumable being purchased is the paper.
“Businesses purchasing the FD 200 are thrilled that the added thermal printer will save them time and money, helping to reduce waste is an added bonus,” said Diane Kraatz of PaymentMax. Time is saved because thermal printers are much quieter and print faster than ink jet printers. The thermal paper is dropped in easily resulting in no “down time”, shorter lines, and happy customers. Purchasing less ink means more money in the pockets of business owners.
Combining ink cartridge recycling campaigns and introducing machines like the FD 200, which uses far less ink than its predecessors, will help our environment by reducing the amount of empty ink cartridges that are thrown away each day, ultimately ending up in our landfills.
Businesses heading into 2009 with green on their minds may want to offer to follow the EPA’s advice and use less, recycle more, replace old equipment with energy saving models, and encourage carpooling. For more information on helping your small business go green visit www.epa.gov http://www.epa.gov.
