Awards season in the world of office equipment is well and truly under way. The most eagerly awaited of all, is Buyers Laboratory Inc.'s (BLI) ‘Pick of the Year’ which have been announced over the last couple of days. It's clear, Canon's unprecedented research and development drive into improving the energy efficiency and environmental impact of its multifunction printers has really paid off. 5 different multifunction printer manufacturers were awarded with ‘Outstanding Achievement‘ for energy efficiency but only Canon laser multifunction printers were awarded more than one, in fact, make that 4 – quite unprecedented in both BLI's and Canon's history.

About Buyers Laboratory Inc (BLI)

For almost fifty years, since the company's founding by the late Arthur Kallet, who also co-founded the celebrated Consumer's Union in the US, BLI has been the leading office equipment testing laboratory and a widely respected source for unbiased and reliable intelligence for the imaging industry. Today, BLI provides key products and services to Office Equipment Manufacturers, Dealers and Business Consumers. These comprise comprehensive reports, including field and laboratory tested reports, productivity reports and special reports on subjects that are of special importance to the industry. The company also aims to offer unparalleled private testing services for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), advisory services for business consumers and provides insightful industry news and analysis. But BLI is best known for its ‘Pick of the Year’. In the eyes of most industry professionals, no other body, other than perhaps BERTL in the US can claim to afford recognition based on such thorough-going testing procedures.

BLI Multifunction Printer Awards

Twice a year, In June and December the BLI's editorial team and experienced test technicians at the company exhaustively review all of the equipment that's been tested over the course of the previous six months and present the most deserving manufacturers with the following awards:

• Pick of the Year – these awards are reserved by the BLI's editors and technicians for devices which they deign to be ‘the best of the best’ and therefore deserve this most prestigious award from the BLI.
• Line of the Year – These are for manufacturers who have submitted a full line of devices for BLI testing and perform well across the full spectrum. The ‘Line of the Year’ award is an annual award given every June.
• Outstanding Achievement – This is reserved for those manufacturers which have demonstrated unique and laudable advances in imaging solutions.

Four Awards for Canon Multifunction Printers

This year, BLI decided that not one but four ‘Outstanding Achievement’ awards were in order for Canon multifunction printers, due to their peerless performance on energy efficiency within their given device categories.

The Canon imageRUNNER Advance C5035i colour multifunction printer, the Canon iR 3245i black and white laser multifunction printer, Canon i-SENSYS MF6680 DN multifunction colour printer and the Canon i-SENSYS MF8350 CDN colour laser multifunction printer all earned five-star ratings in BLI's Environmental Test Reports which were carried out over the past six months. The i-SENSYS MF8350C DN's projected annual energy consumption and running costs were the lowest compared with other models in its range, annual energy consumption for all of the models tested was significantly lower than the average based on BLI's real-world testing methods. Consequently, Canon has been awarded for ‘Energy Efficiency’ in several major device categories - Personal/Small Workgroup Colour Multifunction Printer, Personal/Small Workgroup Monochrome Multifunction Printer, A3 Monochrome laser multifunction Printer; and A3 Colour laser multifunction Printer.

BLI's Senior Product Editor for Scanners and Environmental, Lisa Reider commented,

"For many customers today, energy efficiency is just as important as productivity and reliability. These four models help answer that demand. That's what I call a big step in the right direction."

Canon's European Product Sales, Marketing Director, Paul Rowntree was delighted at the news,

"Canon has a long-standing commitment to helping its customers limit their impact on the environment, and we are thrilled to receive four ‘Outstanding Achievement’ awards for ‘Energy Efficiency’ from Buyers Laboratory. Canon continues to work hard to develop and manufacture devices that are more friendly to the environment, and these awards recognize the environmental advances we have made."