Xerox has created new "Sustainability Calculator" software that allows customer businesses to evaluate the impact of their printers, copiers, and other devices from any manufacturer, on the global environment.

A quick glimpse at Xerox's calculator reveals a basic input screen that asks users to select the cartridges used in their printers and copiers, whether their devices are black-and-white or color, how fast they print, the number of pages they produce per month, and whether those devices are Energy Star certified. It then proceeds to calculate how much energy and the amount of waste created by the machines.

"This calculator cracks the code to help offices of any size really understand just how 'green' their offices are or could be," said John Kelly, president, Xerox Global Services North America. "The same people who are environmentally conscious at home are starting to bring this awareness to work, but in many cases, they didn't know where to start."

Northrop Grumman recently used the Calculator to help reduce the number of multifunction printers and other devices in one division from 2,000 down to 1,100, according to Xerox. Using the tool also helped the company save 27% in energy usage, 26% in greenhouse gas emissions, and 33% in solid waste.