Okay so let’s say you decide to make your office paperless because you know what you will gain from doing so. But then, you wonder, “what will the environment actually gain?” Am I actually making a difference, you ponder. In this article, I will briefly explain how making your office paperless is actually going to impact the environment.
Firstly, just to put it out there, the Worldwatch Institute reports that about 15 million sheets of office paper are used every five minutes in the United States alone – and all that paper has a big environmental impact. Yes, you read that right. Every five minutes!
Going paperless can make your office more eco-friendly in a few important ways:
1) You help reduce paper demand.
Paper production requires trees, so paper contributes to deforestation. In addition, each ton of paper produced generates 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Reducing demand for paper means less paper gets produced, which is beneficial for the environment. The environment needs trees; and paper robs the ecosystem of vast number of trees. If more offices went paperless, that would reduce the demand for trees in a big way. Bigger than you think
2) You use less ink.
Ink used in printing contains chemicals, oils, heavy metals, and other substances that are potentially damaging to the environment. The production of ink also uses fossil fuels.
3) You impact the incidental environmental impact of paper.
Packaging office paper and delivering it on trucks also contributes to paper's carbon footprint, and therefore the carbon footprint of your office.
4) You reduce rather than recycle.
Some professionals think that as long as paper is recycled, the impact of paper on the environment is reduced. This is not necessarily the case. Even with recycling, a significant portion of paper ends up being thrown out and the recycling process itself requires fossil fuels. Reducing your consumption is better for the environment.
To add to this, when offices pioneer the trend of going paperless, it would eventually lead to many homes and schools going down the paperless route as well. Every step we take to protect our environment is a step in the right direction.
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