Going green in your office is not as difficult as you may imagine, in fact there are a number of steps that you can take immediately each of which has a positive impact on the environment. From large corporations with hundreds of employees to a small business with a handful, changing our old habits is the starting point for saving resources and energy.

I wanted to write about one of the easiest things to change and also one that essentially applies to everyone; paper consumption. Ten or fifteen years ago we all heard about a paperless society, a paperless office being a principle underscoring that ideal.

It’s dismaying to learn that we are now using more paper than ever before. In fact based on 2007 data the total sheets of paper per worker exceeds 9,200 per year. I found that hard to believe until I reflected on my previous role within a large financial corporation and realized just how viable those numbers were. I attended numerous training classes and meetings where a ‘deck’ (even the word is ominous) of paper ‘resources’ was supplied to all participants. This stack of former trees would often number 40-50 pages.

The opportunity to reduce paper consumption is a daily reality and one that has immediate dividends. If you can’t implement all of these changes in your work place, focus on the easiest ones first and aim for all in time.

Reports/files and data: From accounting records to customer contacts it’s time to move all reporting to hard drive, discs, or burn to cds.

Planning/Diary/Contacts: There are a number of online tools and of course phone options which means shopping at your local office supply store every December becomes a thing of the past

Day to Day business notes : Rather than a spiral bound notepad, scraps of paper, or post-it notes; an answer is at hand that has existed for years. A dry-erase whiteboard! Although it seems to have more in common with the era of cassette tapes and full service gas stations, a dry erase board is a wonderful place to store ideas, notes, contact information or data until you can load it onto your computer, they even make small ones now.

Communication: I used to work in an office where more than a third of my staff would receive an important email – perhaps something that marked a procedural change. The first thing they would do (even before reading it)….? They would print it! Email has to replace all written forms of communication immediately, whether it be memos, letters or faxes. If you have staff who are technically struggling invest time in training them how to operate without paper. They’ll ultimately thank you and we all benefit

But without paper my day will be chaos: I used to feel that way too. Paper became our security blanket to keep on top of tasks as a reminder, somehow a former piece of a tree on our desk would guarantee a call was returned or a project completed. I really believed that until quite recently. The truth is that there are numerous project management systems and related software that is better than all those notes. They really do work, I’ll explain what worked for me in another article

Paper purchasing: As you aim for a 100% paperless office there may still be some paper to purchase. Ensure any paper you buy is from recycled content with a minimum of bleaching

These are some of the easier ones to enact, there are many more examples and I’d be happy to learn of others you may use. Save a tree, read this blog.

Tim at greenseedwebdesign.com