Epson has launched a four new printers in its EcoTank inkjet series claiming the use 90 percent less energy than equivalent laser printers, and has announced a partnership with National Geographic to raise awareness of the impacts of global heating.
Epson Australia general manager of marketing, Bruce Bealby, said: “In the past 12 months there were more than 500,000 laser printers sold in Australia. That’s a lot of high energy devices sitting on the grid, drawing energy, wasting natural precious resources.”
He said that if the 4000 companies in Australia that employ 200 people or more were to switch from laser to inkjet printing, the reduction in CO2 output would be the same as could be achieved by planting two million trees or taking 13,000 cars of the road.
Four new printers
The four printers, two general purpose and two photographic are aimed at the home office and small business market.
The EcoTank Pro ET-5150 and EcoTank Pro ET-5170 are billed as affordable EcoTank Pro options for high-speed, high-volume cartridge-free printing.
The EcoTank Pro ET-5150 (RRP $639.00) comes with sufficient ink to print up to a, claimed, 5,200 colour pages.. The EcoTank Pro ET-5170 (RRP$649.00) comes with a 250-sheet paper tray, fax, 35-sheet ADF and auto two-sided printing.
The ET-8550 (A4, RRP $999.00) and ET-8550 (A3, RRP $1149.00) are designed for photographic printing. They use six different inks: the three primary colours; photo black; a photo grey that, Epson says, “makes it easy to achieve detailed, high-contrast black and white photos with beautiful toning”; and a pigment black that “ensures sharp text when printing double-sided documents on plain paper.”
Epson also announced, in Sydney, a global agreement with National Geographic, to promote the protection of the world’s permafrost with a campaign entitled ‘Turn Down the Heat’. Together they hope to raise awareness of how people can reduce their own impact of global warming, from homes to offices and other businesses.
The public face of the campaign is National Geographic explorer, Dr Katey Walter Anthony, who oversees arctic observatories in Alaska and Russia that monitor the impact of climate change. Her research into the protection of permafrost is documented in a series of videos, infographics and online contentin collaboration with Epson and National Geographic.
