World Paper Free Day: Let's get paper efficient

World Paper Free Day: Let's get paper efficient How businesses can reduce their paper use for Paper Free Day, October 27, 2011 The information explosion: We have 10x more information today than five years ago." 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 10x The facts How to calculate With all the office paper we the trees you save every year, we could build a 12-foot-high wall of paper from New York to California." by using recycled paper" New York The average UK office worker prints as many as 10,000 sheets of paper in a year (45 per day). Of these, around 6800 sheets can be California It takes 24 trees to make a tonne of paper: If you multiply this by the percentage of recycled content in your office paper, you can work out how many trees you have saved. considered as wasted or unnecessary. 3* Example: 10,000 sheets anually 24 X %3D 30 /100 6800 sheets 7.2 wasted I Even at the height of its success, recycled paper only had about 10% of the printing and writing paper market. Now distributors say that demand is dropping because buyers believe they no longer have to ask for recycled." What do European businesses think about it? A/ Percentage of businesses concerned about the environmental impact of their paper use B/ Percentage of businesses thinking about making the transition from paper HOLLAND UK A/ 40% B/ 59% A/ 82% to digital format B/ 96% GERMANY A/ 88% B/ 74% FRANCE HUNGARY A/ 92% B/ 84% A/ 37% 63% B/ 36% B 59% SPAIN A/ 16% B/ 31% II We always wanted to reduce the paper work as it takes up lots of space and retrieving the information when required was sometimes irritating. Als0, managing the information electronically protects the environment." - Survey Respondent What to do for Paper Free Day What can your company do! What can you do? I Digitise: Convert important information to digital formats to improve access and make efficiency gains I Think before you print 2 But prioritise: Understand what information you hold and concentrate on the high-risk, high-value information 2 Securely dispose of sensitive information and use other waste paper for note taking 3 And recycle: Destroy securely the documents you are no longer required to keep and make sure the paper is recycled 3 Organise a paper free day in your office (and not just on October 27th!) Footnoted Sources: |* AlIM, AIIMS Paper Free Day October 27, 2011, accessed October 2011, http://www.aiim.org/events/paper-free-day 2* American Forest and Paper Association 3* Rethinking Printing Report, Loudhouse Research on behalf of Kyocera, April 2010 4* Conservatree, Trees into Paper, accessed October 2011, http://conservatree.org/learn/Envirolssues/TreeStats.shtml 5* Conservatree, Common Myths about Recycled Paper, accessed October 2011, http://www.conservatree.org/paper/PaperTypes/RecyMyths.shtml 6* Coleman Parkes research, Iron Mountain Document Management Study, accessed October 2011 7* AIIM, AIIMS Paper Free Day October 27, 2011, accessed October 2011, http://www.aiim.org/events/paper-free-day IRON MOUNTAIN