The notion of the “paperless office” is becoming more and more popular as businesses realize the value of making the transition. Eco-friendliness, cost savings, better organization, more space – all of these are benefits when companies reduce paper in the office. However, making the change in your organization can be challenging, and will not happen overnight.
To help make the journey easier, we’ve compiled a list of 3 ways that you can reduce paper in the office. You can implement some of these practices easily and immediately – for others, if you roll them out gradually, you will eventually be able to deem your place of work a paperless office.
1. Print Less
The average employee uses a staggering 10,000 sheets of paper each year. Not only is this wasteful, but it is a significant cost to the business. An easy and immediate way to reduce paper use in your office is to ask employees to think carefully before they print something. Do they really need to print the document? Can it serve its purpose in electronic format? If you start with changing printing habits in your office, you can help significantly reduce how much paper is used in your office.
2. Print Double-Sided
A simple step, yes, but also a great way to reduce paper use in your office. Often, people will print single-sided, effectively using twice the amount of paper necessary. If it is essential that you print something, make sure you print on both sides of the paper. Similarly, if you have documents that you’ve printed in the past that are single-sided, reuse that paper and print new documents on the other side, if possible.
3. Taking Advantage of Technology
Transitioning to a paperless office isn’t just an environmentally responsible choice – it’s also good for your business. There are a number of ways technology can improve productivity and positively impact the bottom line. Paper is not typically the most effective choice – it is easily misplaced and damaged, it costs a lot of money particularly if you need to store a large volume of documents, and paper documents are not searchable or indexable.
With technologies like document management systems, you can help mitigate the issues, improving business processes while also reducing the environmental impact that your business makes.
Ultimately, when your reduce paper use in your office, it can be beneficial for both the environment and your bottom line. For more tips on reducing the use of paper in your office, check out this guide from the World Wildlife Fund.
