Luther officials say they've saved the environment with new printing system

Luther College officials say the school has significantly reduced its usage of paper during the 2009-10 academic year due to a new program.

Instead of charging each user the same flat fee, the new "GoPrint" program tracks printing usage and allocates printing costs on campus. The program started the 2009 fall semester by giving each of the 2,200 students on campus an allocation of 400 pages of printing. That meant there was the potential for nearly 900,000 pages to be printed. However, only 307,948 pages were actually printed.

75 percent of the students printed on less than half of their allotted paper quota. Only 42 students used their full allotment of 400 pages. The average student used only 139 sheets of paper.

One year earlier Luther had ordered 600,000 sheets of paper for printing use. In the fall semester of 2009, it ordered 400,000 sheets--and still had some of that stock on hand at the end of the semester.

"The amount of paper usage may drop even further when faculty and staff are placed on GoPrint, a process currently being implemented," said Matt Hughes, LIS Technology Help Desk Lead. "This would be a great thing for Luther, both from an economic and sustainability perspective."