Paperless Office? Yeah Right.

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Do you remember when the internet first took off and not long after everyone was saying, "Soon we will have paperless offices!" In fact, the opposite happened.

I think it did for two reasons:

1) we are sending a TON more information around, so much information that people can't keep up with all the emails so they need to print them off for weekend or subway reading.

2) we don't trust e-data yet...we might lose it to cyberspace or something so we hit "print."

So are we paperless at Ideal Bite?  Absolutely not.  However, here's what we are able to do:

  • Reuse paper by sending it back through on the other side when it is not sensitive info.
  • Use the edit mode in Word like nobody's business. As just one example, our tips go through about 5 rounds of edits...imagine if we printed each of our 260+ tips a year at least 5 times. 
  • Ask that businesses send any info they want to get to us in e-form, so: "Instead of a brochure, just point us to your e-brochure," etc.
  • And in the Bozeman office, we lug our paper that's been used on both sides up to the recycling center about once a month. In SF I think they have curb-side...
  • We also use recycled paper for our printers and corporate materials. If anyone is interested in business printing services that are green and affordable, go to www.printingforless.com, and use the code for $25 off your first order: RP1SZY4SR.

-Jen... off to edit a week's worth of tips in Edit Mode...considering I just got back from a killer cattle drive I won't complain so much working a bit today.

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At Co-op America (www.coopamerica.org), we work to create the most sustainable office environment: we print on recycled copy paper (and of course printing on BOTH sides), recycled all our plastic, paper, cardboard, we have a compost area in our kitchen, we use energy saving bulbs. Check out our National Green Pages (http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/greenpages/) where you can find thousands of green businesses that sell coffee, tea, clothing, recycled paper, books candles, appliances, cleaning products, and much much more! One note on take home recycling: it's only by demanding an established recycling collections system is it going to be easier to recycle all our waste. Basic Econ 101 supply and demand: once enough people demand something, the supply will increase. At the Magazine PAPER Project at Co-op America (www.magazinepaper.org) I work with magazine publishers, helping them switch to recycled paper. Many are concerned that there won't be enough recycled paper if more and more magazines switch; this will be the case unless we speak up now and demand these collection systems. Then there will not be the worry of running out of recycled paper.
I am actually glad this article came up. I can really relate since I work in an office and we go through ungodly amounts of paper. The most hilarious part is the bosses are so cheap to recycle an envelope, i.e. reuse it, and go through so many other wasteful things around here, it can be disgusting. Since I am always jotting stuff down when I answer the phone, I like the dry erase idea myself. I do agree about sometimes it is easier to print things off and read it. I'll tell you what made me think of that the most--COLLEGES!!!! It's amazing the crap, yes CRAP that students will print off because they get "free" paper in the labs. Low and behold its coming out of their tuition fees. ;-) What I do to minimize the amounts of paper I need to use is cut and paste in Microsoft Word and then shrink the text size WAY down and eliminate what unimportant words/pics/etc. Sometimes it can cut the page amount in half. Every little bit helps....
Very encouraging n informative article. We surely need to follow the tips. Besides the above explained stuff, i've seen another big thing happening in the offices...that is paper-pads/office pads, which are being wasted without written anything on that. It should be encouraged to use it properly so alo of paper can be saved. An easy way out.
In Advertising alot of amount of paper is used..documentation or printing.. so what i think that’s where Efact Paperless Office comes in. You may wana check the link, http://www.efactusa.com/paperlessoffice
Woll...very interesting article.i just came across your article on recycled paper, so I just came across a good way on recycel paper and reuse them on http://www.interracialsingleonline.com/. I feel whay they said are quite reasonabl. however, i am confused the detail on how to recycel them, could you help to show me some more details? or offer some other ideas...?
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Thought regular snail mail was going to be abolished, but on the other hand it really hasnt had much affect. In fact here Aus Post has reported record profits due to the increased volume of online purchases. So snail mail is still here to stay :)
I work at full color printing shop http://sacdigital.com and we are at the opposite end of the spectrum since we are actually a printing company, but we do lots of green things to help. We recycle all of our paper waste and we keep it to a minimum. We also use soy-based inks instead of petroleum or vegetable-based. We also have lots recycled stocks to choose from making the choice to go green a little easier.

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