1. Beware the Folly of the Fax Mentality
When the desktop computer first arrived in the business world, a lot of people believed it to be an instant tree-saver. With the advent of electronic mail and other digital forms of communication, paper was going to be a thing of the past. What they didn’t anticipate was that people would continue to rely on the office printer. In the modern office the average employee uses about 10,000 sheets of paper per year.
Think about assigning one computer to the office printer, as sort of the new age office copier. By keeping the ease in which paper can be printed, you could easily save yourself thousands of dollars and save a part of a forest while you’re at it.
2. One Word: Plastics
No other man-made material poses as much of a long-term environmental risk as plastics, with the exception of nuclear waste. And if you’re a producer of goods, chances are no other material matters more to the ultimate success of your product than the plastic in which you use.
Whether it’s the Custom Thermoforming, or the molding of the product itself, taking the time to consider the origins of your plastic and checking up on the practices of the plastics makers you do business with could easily make all the difference regarding the size of footprint your company leaves behind on the environment.
3. Focus the Office Discipline on the Issue
If office discipline has one goal, it is to increase productivity as a means of saving money. It makes sense then to make paper conservation and other money/environment saving actions top priorities among your work staff. If you do this and loosen the otherwise strict standards of office conduct, you may not only make your employees and customers a lot happier, you might just contribute to a better environment inside and outside your place of business.
Image: Danilo Rizzuti