I recognize that I come from a different generation. I read books on my ipod and articles on my computer. I get it. However, I don’t understand the incredible waste that our offices generate with regards to paper. There is no sense in printing and printing and printing. It’s wasteful and it’s pointless.
As the article in my previous post said, 40% of landfill waste is paper waste. Obviously, reducing our paper consumption along with recycling the necessary (what is necessary?) paper is critical to greening our work spaces. But I think we all realize that we need to make better use of our paper and not unnecessarily print out garbage. Why don’t we do it more often then?
I think it’s lack of knowledge of HOW to do it. Let’s start with simple stuff…
-Instead of printing out that document for a coworker and writing all over it, add comments with the comment tool available within your word processing software. Or add them in red. Or use the strikeout tool. Someone within your office knows how to do this, I promise.
-Use a collaborative editing software for your office like Google Documents, Zoho, or Wiggio. These programs allow for collaborative editing as well as chat between users while editing. Don’t want to drive across town (or go outside when it’s cold) for a meeting? Set up your ideas within one of these collaborative softwares.
-For the love of God, buy a scanner and use it. There’s no reason to have paper strewn all over your office. If someone insists on sending you paper, scan it and email it back to them and then recycle the document
-When you have a meeting, don’t print out 10 copies of every document that you’ll be looking at during the meeting. Why, people, why? Pull a computer into your office with a projector and edit the document in real time. If people need to do things on their own, put notes in the document of what needs to be changed along with suggestions.
-Along the lines of a scanner, I highly recommend Evernote for your personal use or for your office. Everything you add to Evernote is “automatically processed, indexed, and made searchable. If you like, you can add tags or organize notes into different notebooks.” That sounds useful – what about this? “Evernote magically makes printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too.” We have a winner!
Leave some more ideas in the comments.
