Paper, Paper Everywhere – and It’s Killing Your Productivity
While there are benefits to using paper to manage your business, there are also many hidden costs.
The average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper per year – the equivalent of the average four-drawer filing cabinet, which carries an annual cost to manage and store.
Of this amount of paper, close to 45 per cent will end up in a waste paper bin within 24 hours. When you add the cost of printing, printer consumables and maintenance, the daily cost to use paper in the office quickly multiplies.
From an environmental perspective, the paper production industry is the world’s fourth largest contributor of greenhouse gas, and a large user of energy resources in its sector.
On top of this, as paper waste decomposes in landfill it releases methane – the second greatest greenhouse gas released next to carbon dioxide, now produced at a rate that outpaces the planet’s ability to remove it.
Even with modern production processes, it still requires 24 trees to produce a metric ton of printer paper, a process that uses only 75 per cent of each tree, which equates to a huge amount of waste.
Knowing this, when you consider the entire impact of using paper, the details are truly sobering.
About 25 or so years ago, emerging document imaging and document management software vendors were saying the “paperless” office as the next new thing.
Looking around our offices – and our customers offices – that still hasn’t happened yet.
True, document imaging and document management have significantly helped in reducing paper for some businesses and some business processes. But it’s been harder than everyone thought nearly three decades ago. The force of the paper habit remains strong (though, who knows, maybe the coming influx of millennials into the workforce and their born-digital experiences will lead us away from paper).
As a company that sells and leases copiers and printers, why do we continue to talk about paperless and document management? Simple – paper documents, faxes, and photocopiers continue to play an important role in many business’ productivity. With copiers and standalone printers intelligently combined with document management software, you can really intensify up your productivity and save time and money.
