Document Management News Articles from Pearl Scan Solutions
How we can raise the value of paper for our environment
Date: 31/03/2008
Though it is true that we now live in an age based around e-mail and internet it is still sometimes necessary for the ink on paper approach.
However there is still a lack of value placed on paper today and the ink on paper approach isn’t always necessary. Any company wishing to take a more environmentally friendly approach should be thinking about reducing unnecessary paper wastage and realise the value of paper.
There are five key principles that will help raise the view of paper value today:
1. Reduce what you print
2. Re-use what is printed
3. Recycle what is no longer needed
4. Review and revise your paper and print requirements
5. Consider a paperless office approach such as electronic archiving
The idea of placing the responsibility at each employee’s desk is not enough in today’s offices. To make the difference significant it should be input into organisational policies, and implemented into its business processes.
The benefits of this are not only environmental but can be considerably helpful towards resources and financial gains.
Making an environmental statement that delivers fast results
A business initiative already in place is that of a bank statement. The option to have a monthly statement available online in PDF format has in turn encouraged online banking users to cancel their paper delivery altogether therefore saving on postage and paper costs. This is a simple but effective approach. You can see how one small change can have a huge impact; if businesses of all sizes applied the 5 principles mentioned there would be a definite reduction in paper volumes.
Another way of reducing mass amounts of paper in the office that currently exist is document scanning which takes existing paper documents and converts them to an electronic format which leaves the current paper files free for recycling. If this approach was taken in just 20% of offices today recycling loads would increase astronomically.
So if you are reading this now you could even pass it on to other departments and businesses, preferably email it to them of course. This will eventually see the value of paper rise and people may see the electronic age helping the environment more.
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