Where to start creating your green office? The PDF file
July 23, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: Cost Cutting, Green Investing, Green Office, In this week's e-newsletter, News, Waste & Pollution
Achieving a truly paperless office may be a hard nut to crack, but there are still oodles of opportunities to tamp down your office paper use.
One solution is the .pdf file by Adobe, which can help you eliminate paper, the hassles of filing and all the hardware costs associated with printing, faxing or copying a page.
That’s the promise offered by Duff Johnson, CEO of Appligent Document Solutions. Johnson helps companies get their arms around the .pdf technology to move towards the paperless office goal.
He promotes cost-saving opportunities in any office situation because each office-worker consumes 4,000 sheets, or 8 reams of paper a year. And Johnson likes to point out that making paper releases carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on top of creating water and air pollution problems, even if the paper contains recycled content.
But “electronic” paper skips all that pollution, as well as the costs of maintaining copiers, fax machines, scanners, printers, software, etc. Then, there’s the savings on clerical costs of handling all the documents that can be better managed.
All this can be reduced with .pdf technology, as is detailed in a blog Johnson writes. Johnson’s articles are here.
Tags: Adobe, carbon dioxide, Green Office, greenhouse gas emissions, paperless, pdf
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July 2nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
How does one go paperless with machines? I don’t trust computers. They are ALWAYS losing data. I do tax preparation and can’t imagine a totally paperless office. Too scary. My Server has two (2) backups and I use two (2) thumb drives AND I keep paper. I have lost too much stuff in the past to trust this. There are certain regulations that require original signature documents, etc. I use eight (8) reams of paper in a week during the height of the tax season.
July 9th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Gin – Perhaps you should consult our CPA’s who do completely paperless audits and tax returns – Marcia Fritz & Co. of Sacramento, CA. This reduced our bill to them dramatically and we are much happier working with a “green” auditor. By the way, I too am a CPA, so I do understand your fears.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:54 am
You couldn’t go completely paperless. I’m in accounts payable, and most of my bills come in the mail, so I start out with paper. I already have a paper copy of the invoice, so scanning and saving it doesn’t prevent the damage. Might as well keep the invoice, which is actually easier since I have the proper approvals written on it, the details of how I paid it, etc. I have many people who email me their invoices, and I can get approvals via email, but still end up printing it out, so it still equals one piece of paper. Same with payments – I pay via ACH, then email them the details, but still print it out. It’s too much work to save and organize pdf files, according to vendor, with all the back up, then to be able to pull it all up at a moment’s notice.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Donna-Are you sure it’s more work to save and organize pdfs than organize papers, according to vendor, with all the back up, then make files with labels and file them in a filing cabinet, hoping all the while that nothing was misfiled, and then be able to find it at a moment’s notice? I handle both HR and payroll files and reports, so I understand getting paper in the first place plus papers that have to be signed; however, once we started going paperless (we are still in the process) I have found it so much easier to find the information I am looking for on my computer, plus if someone needs something, I can e-mail it to them – password protected for security as well. Even your e-mails can be turned into .pdf files in no more time than it takes to hit the print function and save the document to a file, it is definitely a time saver. It can be daunting on the front end of moving toward paperless, but is well worth it once the initial set up is done.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I still think it’s more work. I don’t have to “make up” files with labels, since we use most of our vendors on a regular basis. And when I get a new vendor, it’s really nothing to make a new file – probably the same amount of time to make a new folder on the computer. It takes less than minute to do either. Plus, I’ve never had anything turn up as misfiled. It’s possible that it may have happened, but at my current job of 10+ years, I have yet to have had anything turn up lost. (Things could get lost, or mistakenly deleted on the computer, too.) There is nothing in my office that I couldn’t find or pull up in a matter of minutes. We do save and store alot of things on the computer, and it is very handy. But for Accounts Payable, I would say 90% of our invoices come in paper form. And we make as many payments as possible via ACH (since we are a bank, and it’s much easier for us), but that still only comes to around 25%. If you are someone who uses online banking, you’ll know that a large percent of those payments are sent out by your bank in check form, drawn by the bank, and not electronically, even though you have done the work “on-line”, you’ll see that it clears your bank as a check. So, there was still paperwork involved.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
In re-reading your email, Katelyn, I also do HR and payroll, and have to say that the only paper work I have for that is the vacation requests, and expense reports. Those could easily be changed to being paperless, for the employees who have access to a computer. May be a little difficult for those who work out side of the office, that don’t have email, computer, etc. But that would be less than 25%. We have 100% co-operation on direct deposits, which is great. And it’s a plus that all the quarterlies, 401k contributions, etc are all done on-line, too. Thanks for the suggestion on going paperless on PR/HR – I may look into doing that.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:02 am
When I arrived at my current employer the entire HR dept was being run on legal pads! I have slowly, over the past 5 years, transitioned much of it to electronic formats. One example I give to others is a particular report that I would print every pay period (2 weeks). It varied between 25 and 100 pages, depending on the time of year (this is a HR dept). I would then photocopy the report and distribute it to 11 people and file the original. We’re talking 300 to 1200 pages every 2 weeks! I finally got so fed up with the amount of time it was taking (I wasn’t even thinking PAPER at the time) so I went to each of the people and asked them if they really needed the report. Turns out that 6 of them had no idea what the report was even for, and it would go in the trash or in a filing cabinet!!! Of the remaining 5, only one needed a paper copy! I now scan the one copy that I print and send it to the other 5 people. I make my notes on my copy, and keep it for 3 months in case a question arises. After 3 months I use the blank side to print the next batch of reports. I have reduced the 300 to 1200 pages down to the equivalent of 38 to 150 – I estimate an average savings of 17,056 sheet of paper per year. And that’s only ONE report! I have not calculated the savings from all the other reports I run.
Yes – it does pay to go electronic!