Impressão Verde: evitando o desperdício

Me deparei com um software muito interessante que, além de fazer economizar nas impressões e abraçar a causa “verde”, é muito útil.

O programa orienta o usuário a gastar menos papel na hora da impressão. Uma situação comum é sair aquela última página apenas com uma ou duas linhas e acabar indo pro lixo. Ou então, pior: ao imprimir no Excel, por exemplo, saem várias páginas com pedaços da sua planilha e nada se aproveita, seja porque esquecemos de ajustar a área de impressão ou de dar uma pré-visualizada pra ver como ia sair. Em resumo, desperdício atrás de desperdício!

E não só de papel, de tempo, também. Agora imagine esses casos multiplicados diversas vezes por dia e em todo o mundo. Quando começamos a fazer as contas: tantas pessoas em casa mais tantas empresas com tantos funcionários… parecem assustadores os números de papéis jogados fora por inobservância de detalhes de configuração.

Então, para tentar dar um basta ou, ao menos, reduzir significativamente essa condição agressiva à natureza, o fabricante GreenPrint Technologies criou um software capaz de identificar essas situações desastrosas e corrigi-las. Com o GreenPrint World esses casos corriqueiros tendem a ser coisa do passado. E a natureza agradece.

Como funciona?

O programa se instala como uma espécie de impressora virtual, bem semelhante àqueles programas que geram PDF. Na hora que você mandar imprimir pela impressora criada pelo GreenPrint World, se ele notar que uma página vai ficar com pouquíssimas linhas, faz o alerta: mostra em vermelho quantas e quais páginas são potenciais desperdícios. Porém, deixa a seu critério imprimir tudo ou descartar o apontado como desnecessário, apesar de -por padrão- considerar a impressão sem perdas. Outra opção é imprimir para um arquivo PDF ou enviar o PDF por e-mail. Dessa forma, economiza-se -mesmo- 100% de papel.

E ainda, se você desejar participar do envio, anônimo, das suas estatísticas de impressão, elas vão alimentar o contador de emissão evitada de CO2 e de páginas e árvores economizadas globalmente por todos aqueles que já baixaram e estão fazendo uso do utilitário. Até o momento da publicação deste post, evitou-se o desperdício de aproximadamente 5,7 milhões de páginas; 1,9 mil toneladas de CO2 e 686 árvores foram poupadas da ceifa.

Fica aí a dica para reduzir os gastos e proteger o meio ambiente ao mesmo tempo! Lembrando que a versão World do software é gratuita: baixe agora.

Postado por Gabriel dos Anjos

Mother Nature cries

This July 16 photo, made available Sept. 2, 2009, shows a "crying face" in an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet, in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. The "tears" in the natural sculpture were created by a waterfall of glacial water cascading from one of the face's "eyes" and painted an alarming picture warning the world about the effects of global warming. Marine photographer and environmental lecturer Michael Nolan captured this picture while on an annual voyage to observe the glacier and surrounding wildlife. "This is how one would imagine mother nature would express her sentiments about our inability to reduce global warming. It seemed an obvious place for her to appear, on the front of a retreating ice shelf, crying," Nolan told the U.K.'s Telegraph.
(BARM/Fame Pictures)

Fonte: ABC

A New Economic Paradigm for a Sustainable Society

Imagine a society without ownership. Imagine how efficient that society could be. Imagine a system in which reuse and recycling were the norm. These are the ideas behind product-service systems and the functional-service economy.

A product-service system is a simple concept. It basically refers to the rental system models we have today (car rentals, tool rentals, etc.); meaning that a customer pays for the use or function of an item, rather than buying the item, itself. However, taken a step further, as a man named Walter Stahel has done, it becomes a full-fledged economy based on service and function of products rather than ownership. He has dubbed it the “functional-service economy”.

What are the benefits of a functional-service economy?

The current system in the Western developed nations of the world can be described as a “throw-away system” wherein the great majority of the things we purchase everyday (including the packaging) is simply thrown away within a very short time span (6 months to a year). This, of course, points to a huge flaw in our production-consumption system; the fact that it’s a linear, through-put system. On one end, we are extracting natural resources, on the other we are simply dumping the resulting waste into landfills or burning it. (Not to mention all of the pollution and waste created throughout the production, processing, transportation and use phases of the products). Looking at the entire “life” of the products we use is called a life-cycle perspective and it is a very necessary way of looking at our system if we want to improve it and find pathways to sustainability. When Walter Stahel looked at the status quo with a life-cycle perspective, he saw just how linear it was and he also saw the places where there are opportunities to create loops. For instance, reusing packaging materials. After a customer used the product s/he’s rented, they bring the product back in the same packaging. No waste. The product is reused and maintained and loaned out to other customers. When a product no longer functions, the parts are reused in other products. The economy functions based on payment for services. It uses the 3 Rs in the right order.

There are obviously many barriers to implementing such an economic model. For instance, there are some strong emotional and psychological ties in modern cultures to ownership. It has become ingrained in our personal sense of identity in many cases. In fact, entire associations are formed around the common experience of owning a particular thing (eg- a certain make of car). There is also not any existing infrastructure to support the functional-service economy in most places. And there are numerous other challenges to realizing this idea. However, it is obvious that we are in great need of a paradigm shift and any such shift will doubtlessly entail great obstacles. It’s just a matter of setting course and finding ways of steering around them.

In a world with a growing population and dwindling resources, we cannot afford to waste, especially not at the current pace. We need innovative solutions and we need to put them into practice. My hat off to Walter Stahel, for developing such a brilliant idea! And now it’s up to us, as consumers, as citizens and as educated professionals, to make the changes happen in reality.

For more information, see:
http://www.unep.fr/scp/design/pss.htm
http://www.indigodev.com/Stahel.html
http://www.lumes.lu.se/database/alumni/06.08/thesis/Jennifer_Hinton.pdf

Fonte: SustainabilityForum