Bianca Bartz
Edit
 Million Tree March How many times have you printed some documents from the web and ended up with that one page with nothing but a URL or logo on it? Though many people chuck it in the recycle bin, too many throw it out. Not only is it environmentally damaging, but it’s a time waster and a huge frustration. GreenPrint was developed to help stop this problem. The Portland Oregon company was started by Hayden Hamilton, a former Ford Motor Corp executive. The program he developed “is able to flag those pages before they print, and make sure they’re something you really want to have in hard copy,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. “I worked for Ford a few years ago in Europe, doing innovation stuff, and we had a Costco-size building that was five stories tall,” Hamilton was quoted. “On each floor, there were 25 print stations, and all of them would be overflowing with orphan pages by 10 a.m. each day.” “For every copy of GreenPrint sold before March 31, we will plant a tree,” GreenTree’s site promises. “If we reach 500,000 trees before March 31, we´ll match every tree planted with an additional tree, making March 2008 a Million Tree March.” That’s a lot of paper waste. In a time where our world is becoming more conscious of our environment, it’s not surprise that green innovations seem to be popping up all over the place. 
TECH CHRONICLES
A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog (sfgate.com/blogs/tech)
Dan Fost
Monday, July 30, 2007
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Printing green could reduce red ink
I just got back from another trip to the office printer, and cringed at the debris that surrounded me: Stacks and stacks of pages with little or nothing on them at all.
It seems like one of those minor annoyances when it happens, but when you multiply it across all the printers in all the offices across the land, it's actually a colossal waste.
GreenPrint, a small startup in Portland, Ore., has an easy answer. The company, developed by a young former Ford Motor Corp. executive, is able to flag those pages before they print, and make sure they're something you really want to have in hard copy.
"I worked for Ford a few years ago in Europe, doing innovation stuff, and we had a Costco-size building that was five stories tall," says the founder, Hayden Hamilton. "On each floor, there were 25 print stations, and all of them would be overflowing with orphan pages by 10 a.m. each day."
"I was printing something, and got one of these pages, and I thought, 'There's got to be a solution to this," he said. "I started looking on Cnet's Download.com and on Google and didn't find anything."
"Almost everyone has experienced that final page that's just a url, or a banner ad, or two pages of legal jargon that they didn't know would print," he said. "I thought, 'This is really an un-met need out there.' "
Hamilton, 30, who lived in San Francisco a few years ago when he worked for the Global Business Network, returned to his hometown of Portland and started GreenPrint. He hired California Software Labs, with offices in Pleasanton and Chennai, India, to develop the software.
And GreenPrint was born.
Home users can download a trial version for free, and buy it for $35. (For every purchase, GreenPrint will plant a tree in any name you choose.) The big money will be in selling it to large companies, which can save big bucks in reduced paper and ink costs. The World Bank is using it, and 23 Fortune 500 companies have pilot projects. GreenPrint says big companies can save $2 million a year on paper and ink, as well as save 4,000 trees and cut 12,000 tons of carbon emissions.
(sfgate)References: sfgate Comment: on GreenPrint Saves Trees & Sanity |
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