In June, attendees at the GMAC Annual Industry Conference heard a case study of how green marketing succeeds at the University of Florida. Dan Williams, UF’s director of marketing, said that under a university-wide campaign called “Think Before You Ink,” UF is saving millions of dollars—that’s right, millions—and thousands of trees.

Think Before You Ink started after UF trustees issued a university-wide cost-cutting challenge. They suggested that printing expenses be cut by converting all printed materials to the web.

Staff researched strategies to meet the challenge and found three significant ways to save money. One was to follow the trustees’ suggestion and migrate publications from print to web format. They also said savings could come from standardizing relationships with off-campus printing vendors and reducing waste in the use of university copiers and printers.

As a short term goal, staff wanted the university to reduce campus printing and photocopying expenses by 20 percent. Over the long term, the hope was that Think Before You Ink would establish permanent sustainability practices for printing and photocopying.

Staff analysis showed that only half of UF’s 350 printed publications were good candidates for conversion from print to web. So to meet the trustees’ challenge, staff revised their objective to focus on reducing printing expenses by converting appropriate publications to web-based delivery, and to do so in ways that protected and enhanced overall communications effectiveness. At the same time, UF’s “Green Team” implemented strategies to help the campus community pare its reliance on photocopies and printouts.

Staff also reduced the number of university print vendors from 170 to fewer than 30. Preferred print providers were certified based on uniform standards—all with an eye toward improving pricing, quality, customer service, and sustainability practices.