Looking to make a few small, daily changes to help reduce your paper usage in the workplace?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in the United States the average office worker uses at least 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. In other words, “that’s four million tons of copy paper used annually.” And this is only accounting for the copy paper used in offices; not to mention newspapers, sticky notes, index cards, and more.
Considering this, it is easy to see how making several small changes in your daily work life could really help add up to great changes toward a greener society and world. Take a look at these 5 tips if you’re interested in helping make a change:
1.
Print smarter. Instead of printing off anything and everything from online and your e-mail inbox, try printing only those items of which you absolutely need a hard copy. If there is a file or document you need to back up, store it on an external hard drive or flash drive in place of printing it off. If you want to encourage other people to do the same, you can even add a line to your e-mail signature reading “Save trees. Print Only When Necessary.” (If you’ve seen people with something of this nature in their e-mail signatures before, you might be curious to know from where it originated.
Visit here to see the Discovery Channel Company™ blog where it all started!)
2.
Get rid of the junk. Sick of receiving so much junk mail and sick of the impact it’s having on the environment? Request to be removed from junk mail lists. For some favorites, find out if they offer their newsletter or subscription online. For more tips on getting rid of the junk mail, visit the EcoCycle website
here.
3.
Recycle it all. Recycle, recycle, recycle. Sometimes you may be surprised at the various types of paper materials your area recycling companies might accept. Encourage and utilize your current recycling program in the office, and do what you can to enhance it. If you don’t currently have a recycling program at work,
click here to get tips about starting one.
4.
Try new-age Post-it Notes®. Post-it Notes® are definitely a useful tool to help you remember various tasks, reminders, and more. But instead of using the traditional paper sticky notes, check out
Evernote™. This program is available in both a download for your computer and as a web-based application so you can access it from anywhere. Evernote can be used for small notes, web clips, memos, and more; virtually anything you would use a traditional sticky note for, and then some. Signing up is free, as is the basic level of an account.
5.
Paperless invoicing! Of course, one of the best ways to reduce paper consumption is to switch to paperless billing and payment for your businesses. To see just how paperless billing and invoicing works,
take a tour here.
Follow one or all of these tips every day to start making a difference for the world from the workplace!
