Take a minute to think about your office routine. This morning I sat down, opened my email, read a couple news articles online, and opened Word to continue working on a report. Yet, when I look around my desk I have three versions of the printed report, a stack of old newspapers, and adhesive notes that need to go to colleagues. Despite an increase in digital technology, excess paper continues to be a significant portion of my office life.
The benefits of businesses going paperless are becoming more and more apparent. Extending beyond the cost of paper, ink and printers, going paperless improves service quality to ensure consistently managed records, as well as properly completed forms and documents. While many business are discovering the efficiency benefits of going paperless, the positive environmental impacts of going digital are also becoming hard to ignore.
Climate change, and the environmental degradation it brings, is widely understood. Everyone has heard about the polar ice caps melting, the growing number of endangered species, sea levels rising and deforestation, but the connections between paper usage and the detrimental environmental damage are rarely drawn. According to the Environmental Paper Network, the pulp and paper industry is the third largest industrial polluter to air, water and land in both Canada and the US, releasing over 100 million kg of toxic pollution each year.
Paper plays a role in almost every aspect of our daily lives. It is estimated that 95 per cent of all business information is still stored on paper, with the risk of being damaged or lost. The unsustainable production and consumption of paper is expected to double before 2030, despite email, cloud services, and the early ‘80’s vision of the ‘paperless office.’
The paper industry has a profound impact on global labour, pollution, and climate change. The Environmental Paper Network estimates that 18 million acres of forest are lost each year to deforestation, contributing approximately 15 per cent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Trees play a critical role in supporting life across the planet; one tree produces enough oxygen for approximately three people.
Currently, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year, or approximately one tree per person per year. It takes 24 trees to make one ton of non-recycled printing and office paper, one ton of paper produces 200,000 sheets of paper. While those numbers may not seem astounding, it is estimated that U.S. offices use 12.1 trillion sheets of paper a year, spending $120 billion a year on forms, which are frequently out-dated within three months. 45 per cent of all printouts and photocopies made are thrown out by the end of the day.
Reducing paper consumption may impact paper producing and distributing companies but the economic and environmental benefits far outweigh the negative impacts on the market. And frankly, we could all use another Dunder-Mifflin style downsizing documentary.
By investing in mobile tech and removing paper from business practices, companies not only save on costs and ensure quality service, but make an investment into the health and well-being of our planet. By making environmentally friendly decisions it reasserts that your company is an active member of the 21st century, aware of the challenges facing our planet.
Sources
Environmental Paper Network
World Resources Institute
Statistic Brain
