It’s a Win Win (Business and the Environment)! 

Businesses are always looking for ways to get a competitive edge. One way is to adopt technologies that drive efficiencies and profits ,and also aid in legislative compliance; and in some cases down the list where the environment can also benefit. One such technology is web based or mobile/smart device technologies that would remove paper based forms and checklists out of a business.

The average office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of paper per year (this is actually a modest estimation). That is around $60 to $70 per year on paper per employee. That is rather expensive considering that up to 50% of the paper will end up in landfill. Further, in some extreme cases it can cost up to 31 times the original cost of the paper to send information when you take into account the paper, printing, postage, filling, storage, etc.

The cost doesn’t stop there! The time factor to find archived forms or documents is about 15 minutes. Finally, many businesses would fail if their paper based forms or documents where rendered useless by fire or water damage. This doesn’t even take into account the loss of rainforests and the release of carbon back into the atmosphere increasing greenhouse gases that have previously been captured.

With a tech savvy workforce, reduced costs associated with cloud computing and smart devices being the main means of communicating data either by facebook, twitter or email we are already capturing and communicating data via smart devices. Businesses need to learn from their employees how to use technology to capture and communicate  information that benefits them and also has a positive impact on the environment.

On a positive note it is an accepted practice that organisations are doing away with snail mail and using email systems to communicate information, such as invoicing, that otherwise would take days or weeks to reach the required destination (not to mention the cost of an envelope and a stamp). Businesses need to find and adopt the available, or even better develop, technologies that drive efficiencies, profits and compliance; and also friendly to the environment.