In the previous post World Environment Day on 5th June – the role you can play we had a look at some startling figures about paper consumption and the environment. Let us now look at the steps you can take to reduce your impact on environmental degradation.
What is ‘Carbon Footprint’?
A key indicator of how much impact you can have on environmental degradation is ‘Carbon Footprint’.
Carbon Footprint Ltd. defines ‘carbon footprint’ as “a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc.” Generally speaking, the less energy efficient our choices, the greater our carbon footprint tends to be.
What does it have to do with paper consumption?
If you are consuming paper, you are contributing to the felling of trees. Trees breathe out oxygen (during the daytime) and help in many other ways to preserve ecological balance. If emissions from vehicles and industries do not decline significantly in the near future, you can counter this by doing your bit to preserve trees. Here’s how you can optimize your use of paper at work (and at home):
- Reduce: Consume less paper. Use electronic modes of communication like emails, document sharing etc., rather than print multiple copies of documents. This will also result in a reduction in the consumption of office supplies like ink cartridges, files, folders etc.
- Re-use: Do not use a writing pad if there are photocopied sheets lying around. Stash them in your drawer and use them if and as you need them. Print or write on both sides of paper. Reports printed only on one side may look neat, but is not an efficient way to work anymore.
- Recycle: If you can, buy only recycled products, be it notepads, A4 sheets, tissues…anything. Important: Paper labeled as “recycled paper” does not necessarily mean it is 100% recycled paper, it could mean anything from 100 percent true recycled paper (great!) to one per cent remanufactured ends of large paper rolls (not that much help); the more ‘post-consumer’ recycled content the better. (Source: GreenBizCheck.com)
If the volume of documents your office generates and works with is high, you may perceive the need for a solution that can help you manage these high volumes electronically. This is where Sohodox can help. Sohodox is a document management software application especially designed for small businesses and professional firms. Using Sohodox, you can scan and save your paper based documents on the one hand; while on the other, you can create, store and manage electronic documents so as to make your businesses processes more efficient than before. Learn more about the benefits and features of Sohodox.
While the rest of the world celebrates ‘World Environment Day’ only on June 5, you can celebrate it from June 3 to June 12, 2011 by buying Sohodox as part of Special Offers we have for you!
