6 Straightforward Ways to Reduce Paper Usage in Your Office
How mindful are you about the number of unnecessary pages produced by your office printers? There are a number of key ways in which you can reduce the number of paper copies that need to be produced, and of course, only printing a document when it's absolutely necessary is the most obvious way. But what are some other straightforward ways to reduce the amount of printed documents produced in your workplace?
1. Online Sharing
Use an online application for sharing documents when collaborating on a project. Only print when the final product has been completed. Numerous parties should perform successive copy edits to ensure that the final product is free of errors prior to printing.
2. Policy Documents and Training Material
When paper copies of policy documents and training manuals become too worn to be used, recycle them and use an exclusively electronic version from that point onwards.
3. External Promotional Material
Perform an audit on the previous occasions when promotional materials have been printed for external distribution. How many copies have generally been left over? Choose the number of copies to be printed accordingly. Additional copies can be (sparingly) printed if it seems there will be a later shortfall during the distribution process.
4. Internal Documents
Assess the recipient list for any internal documents that have traditionally been printed for internal distribution. Is it necessary for the document to be printed at all? If a signature is required, can the delivery mode be reconfigured for an electronic signature or acknowledgement of the document having been read? And if a hard copy is needed for some staff members, do all the intended recipients truly need a copy?
5. Configure the Printer
Configure your office printer for double sided printing only for internal documents. Instruct staff that this configuration is not to be reset except for under certain circumstances when double sided printing is not appropriate.
6. Letterhead on Demand
Do certain internal documents automatically print with your company logo and contact details added? This feature should be only added on demand. It uses up more surface of the paper, allowing less content to be included on the document. It's unnecessary, since everyone working in an internal capacity will already know where the document has come from. At the very least, your company name can be added as a header in small font if you feel it's absolutely necessary.
It's practically impossible to have a workplace that doesn't require any printed documents, but these six tips are great ways to at least drastically reduce your paper usage. For more efficiency tips, contact the company that supplied your printers.