The Paperless Office: Fact or Myth?

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The paperless office has been a concept since way back in the 1940s. It was a term used to define the “office of the future”, much like the ‘centralised appliance control’ concept defined the “home of the future”. We’re certainly living in the homes of the future our ancestors envisioned, but what about the office of the future? What of this “paperless office”?

In this supposed office, computers have completely obliterated the need for paper. What are the advantages of this? There are many. One of the more famous advantages is the reduction of the environmental footprint that paper usage creates. “But paper can be recycled!” I hear you exclaim. Yes, but the recycling process involves heavy-duty vehicles and machinery. This in itself creates a carbon footprint. (This doesn’t mean don’t recycle! Do recycle! Never stop recycling!) What’s more is that paper costs a lot more than you may think. Yes, paper can be purchased pretty cheaply. But actually using the paper brings further costs. There’s the cost of ink for printing. There’s the cost of disposal. There’s a lot to consider!

Keeping documents on computers is efficient for many reasons. With cloud collaboration tools, multiple people can access the same document and make their own edits to it. The paper equivalent to this involves printing out that entire document as many times as there are employees who want to access it. By eliminating the use of paper, you’re also freeing up a lot of space. You don’t dispose of everything your print; many documents need to be kept. That means stuffed storage cabinets and file piles drowning desks.

This all sounds perfect, right? Why hasn’t the entire world moved to paperless? Well, hold your horses. There are many disadvantages that come with the death of office paper usage. They relate primarily to comfort and security. Reading long documents on a computer screen isn’t a lot of fun; it’s easier to have the document in your hands. It also requires complex permission settings and the need to tighten your network security. If you get a computer virus, then you can lose access to a lot of work!

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So maybe the paperless office isn’t as great as it once sounded. But try bringing the positives to your business with these quick, paper-saving tips.

Print responsibly. Printing is rarely necessary, really. A lot of people open a document and immediately print it out of habit. Get out of that habit! If you need to print, save paper by using both sides of the page. Try reducing font size to reduce paper use, too.

Reduce incoming and outgoing mail. Try to keep communications with customers and clients to email. This is the kind of thing banks have done, sending online statements instead of paper ones. You can also reduce your incoming paper mail with postal mail scanning services.

Collaborate electronically. There are a bunch of online collaboration tools out there. There are text editors and spreadsheets. But there is also image creation software that allows multiple users to draft things on their screen instead of on several sheets of paper. Graphics tablets simulate the feel and accuracy of hand-drawing. Whatever you need, there will be something out there to suit your business needs!