You probably already know about the many economic and workflow benefits of going paperless. You can save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each year by eliminating expenses associated with housing paper documents. Also, your efficiency and and workflow productivity will improve when you no longer have to manually process and store paper documents. But did you know that going paperless also leaves a lasting positive impact on the environment? These days, many companies are taking “green initiatives” to reduce their carbon footprint and become more environmentally conscious. Going paperless is an excellent way for your company to go green! Below are the top 4 ways in which going paperless benefits the environment.
Saved Trees: Trees are essential to life on earth. Without trees, we would not have oxygen. It’s no secret that countless trees are killed every year to produce paper. Each tree produces an average of 17 reams of paper, while it takes an average of 100 years for a tree to fully grow. Therefore the more paper you use, the more trees you destroy.When your company goes paperless, you will save many trees in the process.
Reduced Ink: The ink that is used in printing contains a number of harmful chemicals. Such chemicals include: oils, heavy metals and fossil fuels. When you throw out old paper documents, you are releasing all of these chemicals back into the environment. When your company goes paperless, you will ensure that you won’t use any of these chemicals again.
Eliminated Waste: Paperless technology will free up office space, but it will also reduce the amount of waste that your office produces. Roughly 1 billion trees of paper are thrown out as waste each year by US companies and organizations. While it is important to recycle paper, more trees are still required to create new paper from recycled documents. A paperless office will greatly reduce, if not eliminate, paper waste that continues to have a negative impact on the environment.
Reduced Energy Consumption: It requires a lot of energy to produce paper. Not to mention the energy that’s required to manufacture and transport paper. For every tree that is used for paper, roughly 100 lbs of carbon dioxide are released in the air. Going paperless will eliminate all of this required energy, thus reducing the amount of carbon emissions.
For more information about going paperless and what you’re first steps should be, please contact Biel’s today.