In 1975 the Business Week publication stated future offices would be paperless. Now 47 years later, can we honestly say we have achieved this? Are we a paperless society? Do we really need to use it as much as we still do? Are we living sustainably?
Eliminating paper can be invigorating and launch you into a new and exciting world of extreme organisation. The impact of paper has on our environment is huge, did you know …..
It is estimated that a standard 45ft pine tree will produce around 10,000 sheets of paper.
A pine trees grows roughly one to two feet per year. Therefore, it could take 45 years to produce 10,000 sheets of paper.
One pine tree would produce 20 reams of paper (which is 500 sheets per ream). So eliminating paper really will save our trees.
Each person in the UK will use approx. 4.5 trees per year for the purpose of paper in their personal and work lives. So how can you also reduce paper at home?
Each of our UK office workers are suggested to use around 10,000 sheets of A4 paper per year. Can a paperless technology reduce this number? Absolutely!
It takes around 10 litres of water to produce one sheet of A4 paper. This means each employee is using around 100,000 litres of water per year on office paper. The NHS recommend we should drink 1.2 litres of water each day. So one A4 piece of paper requires more than 8 times the amount of water we need in a day. Crazy!
Shockingly half of all our waste stems from paper usage. Is this sustainable?
Click here to discover just how many TONS of paper are produced are around the world. Its a live counter and the number is just horrifying.
Paper in the workplace
Is paper used as a safety net for holding vital information in the palm of your hand or could you take the leap to digitise some of your businesses paper processes with paperless technologies? Can you become more sustainable?
I’ve grown up in a time when paper in a work environment was vital. Paperless technologies were just not advanced as they are today and when I first started working, we even used a fax machine as emails systems were not overly straight forward. Instant messaging had to be via fax. There was not the focus on sustainability.
We used to print everything and have numerous copies of one document filed in many different places and then we would send out more copies to customers, suppliers, accountants etc. Over the years we have all learnt the advantages of storing our information online but why is it that some old habits such as printing paperwork are just not keeping up with the digital trends? We know its not sustainable but yet we still do it. So the question is, is it about lack of trust in a digital solution or psychological or lack of knowledge of the damage paper production causes? What holds you back?
Today’s modern offices
We have modernised our workplaces and to the point they are almost unrecognisable, or our workplaces are now in our homes. Home working would never have been possible without the aid of paperless technologies. Just look at the photo below as a reminder of what offices looked like back in the 1970s. See how much paper there is and how many places they had to store all the paper. Do offices nowadays still have pigeonholes for mail? Who still has a card address box or a desk calendar? Who still uses this amount of paper? No one, because we all try to be more sustainable. But when it comes to printing, can we actually reduce this even more?
To print or not to print, that is the question
I still have to think before hitting the print button for my paperwork. The little voice in my head asks, do I actually have to print it? Why am I printing it? Is there a paperless solution? I have had to learn that printing paperwork was actually more psychological for me rather than necessity.
I felt if I printed something I would have a paper back up or know that I had vital information in the palm of my hand. Sometimes I would print because I felt it was more professional to visit a client with printed paperwork rather than getting my phone, tablet or laptop out, as I may seem rude if I am starting at my device rather than focusing on my client. Another excuse I used was, I may not have Wi-Fi therefore printing will mean I always have my paperwork to hand. But to be honest, if I downloaded or saved to my device Wi-Fi wouldn’t be a problem! If I can think ahead to print, I can definitely think ahead to download.
The reality of paper
To change habits is hard but when you see the screaming reality of what paper alone is doing to our environment, then surely its worth changing for a more sustainable alternative. The environmental effects of paper production include deforestation, the use of enormous amounts of energy and water as well as air pollution and waste problems. So surely the answer to can I be paperless, is yes?
Trusting in a new digital solution can be challenging so finding the right company who can walk you through the process and support you is key. Ask for recommendations from colleagues or your industry. It’s not as terrifying as you may think implementing a paperless solution, so embrace it, as you’ll find yourself saying ‘I wish I had done this sooner.’
If you would like to find out more about paperless technologies and transform your paper forms to digital, then please get in touch. We would love to hear from you and help you streamline your data capture. Contact via email info@banthamtechnologies.com or call +44 (0)20 7698 4447 or via our website here.
