‘World Paper Free Day’ Brings Businesses Closer to a Paperless Future
Today marks the one day a year when AIIM urges businesses and individuals to spend an entire day without using or wasting a single piece of paper. It is adequately called World Paper Free Day. What that means is no printing, no scribbling down needless notes, no tossing pieces of paper that could have been adequately recycled, etc.
Even though paperless offices are far from universal today, many companies have been using sustainable practices for years. For example, did you know that Contentverse software was originally released in 1998 as The Paperless Office? And we’ve been urging paper pushers to go paperless ever since.
AIIM’s World Paper Free Day has a similar mission: to ‘get us all thinking about how much paper we use in our everyday work and personal lives.’ WTRF 7 News says that, “Organizations from all over the world have taken the paper-free pledge, including Fujitsu, Iron Mountain, and IBM.” And that for each registration it receives, “AIIM will make a donation to One Laptop per Child, the non-profit organization offering laptops for children in developing countries.”
But even with the involvement of big names and selfless donations to non-profits, there is still a lot of work to be done. “Despite the progress seen in this year’s research, paper is still being used unnecessarily in millions of offices all over the world,” says John Mancini. “Doing so means processes are slowed and untold harm continues to be done to the environment.”
According to a recent research done by AIIM, ‘a lack of management initiatives and staff preferences’ were the top two reasons why so much paper is still around. Of business executives surveyed, 84% saw payback from their paper-free projects within 18 months, with 26% doing so in fewer than six months. We know now that there is a general lack of understanding of the paper-free options out there. Businesses can check out the WRAP Green Office Guide for more metrics and guidelines.
About a year ago, we created an infographic cluing people in on the downsides of relying so heavily on paper. Did you know that the average American office worker is said to use an average of one sheet of paper every 12 minutes, and is responsible for the disposal of 100 – 200 pounds of paper per year? But, if the environment doesn’t concern you, consider how much all that waste of paper costs your business…
If you made it past the one day mark as a paperless office, why not set a goal for yourself and turn your company into a sustainable one? It may be an investment in the beginning but going paperless forever will save you in the long run.
Imagine the lack of clutter, monolith filing cabinets, misplaced documents, and even paper cuts! Once you get a taste of what your company is capable of and how efficient it can run, you won’t want to turn back.
If your business is curious about the paperless life, Enterprise Content Management is a big step in the right direction. Contentverse (formerly known as The Paperless Office) can help you get there. After all, a paper free world is the one we should all want to live in.
