Rebekah Lodos
Special to the Ledger
Document Services has seen a steady decline in business over the past few years due to the college’s sustainability efforts and transition to online communication.
Printing for classroom materials has dropped 30 percent in the past five years according to Bruce Hines, director of Document Services. Marketing Communications has cut the quantity of printed brochures by putting the information online and demand for paper has decreased from six truckloads per year to only two and a half.
“The sustainability initiative and the digital work has really helped with that a lot,” Hines said. “[With] the initiatives to be more sustainable, there was a lot more discussion about ways to do that. We started seeing an impact … a big trend of reduction in run lengths for production of documents for marketing pieces … with all the new online marketing and ways to communicate through email and social media.”
The Document Services team has operators in offset printing who have made a wide range of material from business cards to posters for the college.
The college began focusing on initiatives to go green in 2008 when former President Terry Calaway signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). The college’s Center of Sustainability launched shortly after in 2009.
“Our signing the ACUPCC in 2008 … is an important step that many campuses don’t achieve until later in conversations about sustainability,” said Kristy Howell, Sustainability Education and Engagement coordinator in the Center for Sustainability.
The college has been a leading force in the movement to make higher education environmentally friendly and is the 2016 Climate Leadership Award winner for two-year institutions in the United States.
Still, some departments have suffered loss during the process that began in 2009. Document Services has downsized as a result of less business. It was previously two separate departments with around 12 full-time and four part-time employees. Now, Document Services has only five full-time and four part-time employees.
“We’ve been adjusting over the years,” Hines said. “As people leave we just resize ourselves. It’s been gradual, we’ve kind of been moving with the reductions in the work orders. We work with our team to adjust that way and it’s worked out pretty good.”
Despite less business, the department has eagerly joined in the effort to go green.
“We recycle everything,” said Duane Quillen, production manager at Document Services. “Aluminum plates that come in press, any cutting that we do, any scrap material and stuff is collected. We put all of our paper back in.”
Quillen said the department has used recycled paper for many years and will switch to even more eco-friendly paper in the future.