Lexington, KY - With its eye on reducing the environmental impacts of its products, Lexmark completed its most recent product life cycle analysis (LCA) - this one on the toner cartridges that serve its laser printer market. Its ongoing LCA initiatives join Lexmark with a global effort to bring industry more in harmony with the earth's ecology of living systems by lessening resource depletion, greenhouse gas emissions and landfill trash.
The LCA reports a product's potential environmental impacts from "cradle to grave." It examines resource use, human health issues and ecological consequences all along the product's lifespan, from its manufacture through its use phase to its end of life (disposal/reuse/recycle). The LCA becomes a decision-making tool to guide product design and manufacture.
"We started back in the first half of 2008, and it was completed about the end of 2009," said Jason Kelly, speaking of the toner cartridge LCA. Kelly heads the Toner Supplies Team at Lexmark. A third party, WSP Environment and Energy, did the analysis for Lexmark.
"We provided them with our primary data concerning our manufacturing processes, product information and so on," said Kelly. "They used their databases and other modeling tools to develop the overall LCA tool."
As abstract and dry as it may sound, the process results in insights that can make significant changes on the ground with regard to environmental impacts. The need for greater consumer education can also become apparent.
For an LCA to carry any weight, it must meet standards set by the International Organization of Standards (ISO). The ISO brings together experts from government, industry and non-governmental organizations to study product issues and formulate standards. ISO standard 14000 concerns environmental management, and under that category, ISO 14044 sets the standards for life cycle analysis. These are the standards that Lexmark meets with all of its LCA work.
Lexmark's "print less, save more" message came from an LCA the company did on its multi-function laser printer.
"That's when we really got our first corroborating hard data that paper has the greatest impact on the life cycle and use phase of that device," said John Gagel, manager of sustainable practices at Lexmark. He added that up to 80 percent of the environmental impact of the laser printer is from the paper used.
The toner cartridge LCA found that the carbon footprint of a cartridge is reduced by 60 percent when cartridges get recycled rather than thrown away. With its recycling programs and energy efficiency/environmental product features, Lexmark is responding to market demand as well as providing consumer education. Customers can buy printer cartridges at discounted prices if they agree to use the cartridge once and return it for recycling. A collection program for cartridges allows consumers to return any used Lexmark cartridge in a postage-paid envelope that comes with purchase (also available by request at Lexmark website). Customers can recycle their Lexmark printers by shipping them to a Texas address that is listed on the LexMark website. Illinois, Maine and Hawaii have passed environmental legislation that addresses printer recycling, making it easier for consumers to do the recycling through closer-to-home collection.
Lexmark has also introduced high-yield and extra high-yield ink/toner cartridges, prolonging cartridge use life. Their printers offer features that cut down on paper usage. The duplex feature prints on both sides of a page. Multi-up printing shrinks pages so that multiple page images can be printed on one side of a sheet. Another feature, print release, has cut paper consumption for companies by 50 percent by having an authentication system for printing. A toner save mode reduces the amount of toner used and eco-mode forces the printer into duplex and power saving modes, using less paper and energy. These are the kinds of product changes that can come about through product life cycle analysis.
The LCA is also a useful tool for Lexmark in its corporate social responsibility reporting to the Global Reporting Initiative, which holds participating companies to high standards in sustainability and social responsibility.
"We are going to take that data and look at where we think we can make improvements," said Kelly of the toner cartridge LCA . "It will be with a long-term perspective for our ongoing development plans for our products."
"As technology changes and infrastructure develops, we'll be able to recycle more," said Gagel. Lexmark, he said, by using its long-established "design for the environment" planning and more recently the tool of life cycle analysis, will be ready to adopt better materials and practices as technologies and environmental programs mature.