Be eco friendly

When choosing eco-friendly printing equipment, does it matter what the sticker says? 

Businesses and citizens alike, we all want to do the right thing for the environment. That’s achievable in many ways: recycling, running a smaller, perhaps electric car or even bolting solar panels onto our roof. By carefully choosing products and services, we can make eco-friendly decisions every day.
But if a product claims to be “green” or “sustainable”, how do we know it’s true? We need solid reliable information at the point of purchase. That’s where environmental labels and ISO can help.

What on earth has ISO got to do with environmental labels?
Environmental labels indicate that a product shows consideration for the environment and provides customers with helpful information when selecting eco-conscious products. 

Environmental labels come in three types (Type I, II and III) standardised by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or a compliance label that indicates that the product complies with specific performance criteria.

There are various environmental labels in the countries and regions around the world where Brother operates. In Europe, there are three key environmental labels to highlight.
• Having products complying with a Type 1 standard, such as Germany’s Blue Angel is a rigorous process, with a device’s emissions, energy use and the recyclability of the product, and other environmental requirements and benefits, all carefully assessed. The device’s compliance with the label is verified by an “Environmental Jury”.
• We also achieve the Nordic Swan Label in the Nordic regions. The process to achieve this certification is similar to that of Blue Angel’s but with additional local environmental requirements to meet, all of which are verified by the Nordic Eco Labelling Organisation, the issuer of the Nordic Swan Label.
• In Europe, Brother partners with the EU Energy Star scheme, which verifies how imaging equipment complies with energy usage. It represents the standard of environmental consciousness that a manufacturer should want to meet within Europe. The EU Energy Star website provides consumers with a database of Energy Star qualified office equipment to review and choose the most energy efficient models.

Multiple labels build confidence in eco performance
In Europe, having Blue Angel, Nordic Swan and EU Energy Star accreditation on our products signposts an environmentally sound imaging device purchase.
In terms of research and development, we start the design process several years before the product comes out, with the requirements of the labels taken into consideration.