Let’s think big when going green and consider all the fronts where we can substantially reduce paper consumption and, therefore, our carbon footprint. With everyone’s effort, we can mitigate the following four problems resulting from paper use:
- Deforestation: To produce paper, a large number of trees must be cut down and there are areas of the world that do not have time to recover from massive cutting.
- Pollution: Producing paper also requires using a substantial amount of chemicals, which generates a lot of pollution in the form of carbon emissions and waste. In the paper industry, pulp and paper manufacturers are responsible for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions and, although they are on a downward trend, there is still much room for improvement.
- Resource consumption: Paper manufacturing also requires a high consumption of other natural resources, such as drinking water. Between two and thirteen liters of water are needed to manufacture a single piece of paper.
- Waste: Waste disposal is a major environmental threat related to paper. On average, half of corporate waste is paper, as we print more documents than we actually need. This paper is then deposited in landfills and decomposes, releasing toxic methane and leaching ink into soil and water sources.
Five ecological and economic benefits of document software solutions
Inaction is not an option and document management software offers ecological as well as economic advantages.
- Environmental impact mitigation. Eliminating paper from certain corporate processes would save dozens of trees a year and reduce emissions from companies, which need to be bold and consider whether they can banish paper from more processes.
- Increased efficiency. By implementing document software solutions and digitizing processes, productivity and team efficiency are automatically increased.
- Stronger employee engagement. Going paperless and engaging in green initiatives help attract the best talent and retain the most committed and skilled workers,who genuinely care about the environmental footprint of their company and themselves as individuals.
- Cost reduction. If we are more practical and go down to the P&L account, we will see that paperless processes increase company profitability for several reasons. On the one hand, physical paper storage costs disappear, physical document management time is saved,and human error rates are reduced. On the other hand, customer engagement increases because they are promptly informed and have access to numerous communication channels, and employees have more resources, as they can easily find and consult in real time the documents they need for their work.
- Improved data security. Companies must configure software security settings according to their needs, but any cloud service provider can improve document security compared to the security offered by a locked filing cabinet.
How to create a paperless office in ten steps
Digital transformation is the only path towards the disappearance of paper in offices. And document software solutions are a fundamental ingredient of this transformation since these solutions allow PDFs to be digitized and stored in databases for later retrieval in real time.
- Keep track of print jobs. It is necessary to check the amount of paper used each day and week. It may seem complicated, so it is possible to install print auditing software to find out where print jobs are coming from.
- Calculate cost reduction. It is essential to control all printing costs, including printers, ink or toner, paper and service contracts, storage, and technical support.
- Use digital tools and mobile applications. The idea is to use digital versions of paper files from the start. Mobile applications can be extremely useful because they allow easy sharing of data with customers and suppliers.
- Teach staff to use less paper. Employees need to be trained to handle and process electronic documents, such as invoices, including digital signatures. To engage them in the challenge of achieving a paperless office, monthly reduction targets can be set and publicly displayed. It is also advisable to create a system that lets employees know how many hard copies they have generated each month.
- Control, measure and analyze. To measure the progress of the process of creating a paperless office, the reams of paper purchased must be monitored.
- Scan any received document. There are reasonably inexpensive document scanners that allow getting documentation in PDF format. There are even good scanner apps for smartphones that are amazingly simple and useful.
- Sign documents digitally. Most countries already have laws where by electronically signed contracts are legally as valid as those signed on paper. For companies, the mere fact of accepting documents signed by e-mail instead of forcing their customers to send them by fax is in itself a technological breakthrough.
- Use online banking. Many banking customers are already requesting digital statements and reports from financial institutions. Customers do not want to miss anything, so they set up alerts in their accounting software that remind them, for example, when an invoice is due.
- Implement electronic invoicing. Managing company finances through the web makes payments faster and easier to track. Italso allows sending e-mail receipts to customers instead of printing them.
- Redesign key business processes. To substantially reduce the use of paper, there is no choice but to redesign certain business processes to identify procedures wheregoing paperless is possible. One of the easiest steps is to generate reports directly in PDF, which can be reviewed on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
In short, it is nothing new to talk about energy efficiency, cost savings and respect for the environment, but we must not give up and continue to make a strong commitment to these values.
While document software solutions can help companies reduce their carbon footprint, the technology business community as a whole must take greater responsibility for protecting our planet.
About DocPath
DocPath is a leading enterprise document software company that offers its international customers the technology that allows them to complement their ERP and implement advanced Document Output Management, Customer Communications Management and document software pooling processes.
Founded in 1993, DocPath is based in Europe, USA and Latin America and is present with its Solutions in companies around the world. Among its customers there are prestigious banks and top-tier corporations, facilitating the difficult and complex task of designing, generating and distributing their business-critical documents. DocPath keeps a strong commitment to R+D+i, an area to which it allocates a large part of its revenues, and in which lies one of the keys to its success.
For more information, visit: www.docpath.com.
Legal Notice: DocPath is a registered trademark of DocPath Document Solutions. All rights reserved. Other trademarks mentioned herein might be the property of their respective owners.