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Kyocera and Kira Supplies Ltd Reduce Carbon Footprint of Derbyshire School |
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Environmental awareness is becoming an increasingly hot topic, even more so in the education sector. The classroom environment is considered one of the most challenging for IT equipment and we are seeing a strong focus on identifying the total cost of ownership of the printers prior to purchase, as schools have realised that what seems like a good deal at the point of purchase can end up being a costly mistake once the lifetime consumables costs are taken into account.
Printing is inherently a wasteful activity. Even setting aside the amount of paper wasted through single-sided printing and uncollected printouts, the toner cartridge that is discarded every time the ink runs out represents a significant problem when it comes to safe disposal or recycling.
Hope Primary School is a very small school in the rural Hope Valley, in the Peak District area of Derbyshire.
The school has 44 pupils and only seven employees on its books, meaning its budget reflects its size and they don’t have a high expenditure for IT equipment. Over recent years the ICT suite in the school had become outdated and unreliable and the purchasing of a whole new suite would prove to be a big expense.
Sam Fisher, Head Teacher of the school said: “As we are only a small school, we have to manage on a smaller budget. We do however take environmental IT very seriously as we’re a rural school in the High Peak and are seen as a leader in deploying green solutions.”
The school started looking into a new printing strategy in September 2007. The school were already running a multiseat computing solution called Miniframe SoftXpand which transforms a single desktop PC running Microsoft Windows XP into up to six fully independent computer workstations using standard monitors, keyboards and mice which reduces your electricity bills and carbon footprint.
They wanted a printing solution to complement the SoftXpand system and asked Roger Anscombe at reseller Kira Supplies Ltd for his recommendations. The school had been having problems with their previous printing fleet with ink running out quickly, slow and restricting printing speeds, as well as lost print jobs.
Roger, Managing Director of Kira Supplies said: “The school did consider DELL and PC World in the evaluation process but I recommended they went with Kyocera as it fitted their budget well and went hand in hand with their environmental stance and what they wanted to achieve.”
The school had a FS-C5025 and two FS-1100s installed in the building and immediately reaped in the benefits. The printers benefitted from Kyocera’s ECOSYS technology which is uniquely designed to minimise total cost of ownership in an environmentally responsible product. Kyocera's drums and developer have been designed to last up to thirty-three times longer than those of competitor's printers. They do not need replacing every time the toner runs out, therefore the user need only replace the toner cassette, hence reducing cost and waste.
Sam Fisher said: “We immediately saw a reduction in toner bills and in power usage. The printers are extremely reliable meaning we have had to make less service calls. “The printers are remarkably quick at printing which is very important for long documents and coursework. The children no longer sat waiting frustrated and the beautiful quality and high standard of printing shows the students work off brilliantly.
“The skills of the children have also improved significantly, teachers now plan to use ICT more frequently in their lessons and we have saved money as we rely on the ICT technician a lot less.”
“The cost savings and reliability we have experienced from the Kyocera printers have been very satisfactory, and they are a good fit with the school’s green strategy. I envisage our partnership with Kyocera and Kira Supplies continuing as our printing requirements increase.”
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