If you'd like to support the initiative please let us know by e-mailing: printdoublesided.utoronto.ca

Objective: To encourage professors to:

                                                                             1) Accept double-sided assignments, essays etc. and/or

                        2) Request/Require that all course work is double-sided

1.      Why double-side?

Printing on both sides of a sheet of paper is an easy way to reduce paper use by half! This is essential because:

Ø      Paper manufacturing is the 3^rd largest user of fossil fuels worldwide

Ø      Each year 4 billion trees are cut down to produce 300 million tons of paper (American Forest and Paper Association)

Ø      In 2005 alone, more than 1 billion sheets of paper were purchased by the University of Toronto, at a cost of approximately $6 000 000 (Baseline Monitoring of Paper Resource Consumption U of T,  2007)

Ø      Double-sided printing has potential to reduce paper consumption and funds associated with purchasing paper by 15-40% (Report on  Paper Reduction Targeting 1^st and 2^nd Year Undergraduate Courses, 2007)

Despite traditional aversion toward double-siding, a study investigating barriers to paper reduction in offices demonstrated that lack of knowledge is the largest obstacle to printing double-sided. Most people don’t realize that all printers are capable of double-siding (please see our instructions).

In addition, from the perspective of instructors, double-siding means transporting half the volume of paper between the classroom, office and home. Furthermore, it saves money.

 Lastly, in keeping with the U of T Environmental Protection Policy, double-siding is an earth-friendly action we must all adopt.

1.      Initiative recommendations:

1. We request that instructors verbally inform their students and teaching assistants of the double-sided printing initiative.

2. We recommend the following text for course syllabi and assignment outlines:

a. “All assignments in this course are to be double-sided”

or

b. “To conserve paper, please print double-sided”

If you're interested in supporting the initiative...

We ask that you please e-mail us (printdoublesided.utoronto.ca) and let us know of the degree to which you would like to support our initiative, as well as the course code(s) for the classes where this will be in effect:

1)      Request that assignments are double-sided (statement ii. b)

2)      Require that assignments are double-sided (statement ii. a)