You commute to office and on your way you see a majority of people glued to some device consuming digital content. You get your daily dose of news on your mobile device while commuting, check & mark important emails, check your calendar on your phone and prioritize your tasks for the day before you actually reach office-all with your mobile device.
… And once you get there
However, on reaching office you take a notepad to meetings, sort paper files, print emails and by the end of the day you might have printed at least 10 copies of a document on average. According to an India Ratings report of 2014-15, India consumes about 9 Kg of paper per capita every year. Industry leaders also suggest that the consumption of paper in India is set to go up from 13 million tons in 2014 to 20 million tons by 2020. Well, that’s humongous if you realize we are actually in the digital age and still emulating our lives that was 30 years ago! On one hand we are digital and tech savvy individuals and on the other hand we are chronically dependent on paper as a means of information and communication for official purposes!
Paper is a habit … but have you heard of Paper Pollution?
Habit you see, is the most difficult thing to change! However, it’s not impossible. The buzz on paperless office has been doing the rounds for almost 3 decades now. Although there is not much traction seen as yet, things are set to change and we are steadily moving towards the goal of a paperless office. There has been marginal, if not significant, decline in the rate of paper consumption in the past couple of years. Some people love paper and will never out grow them, but it’s time to be practical. Well, here are some facts:
| Paper Pollution Cause and Effect | |
| Effect | Cause |
| Air Pollution | Emission of Greenhouse gases during fiber procurement, pulp and paper manufacturing |
| Water Pollution | Recycling of paper leads to sludge creation which leads to significant water pollution |
| Landfill Emissions | Paper disposal in landfills emits greenhouse gases. Paper accounts for up to 71.6 million tons of waste per year |
| De-forestation | Approximately 80,000 to 160,000 trees are cut down daily worldwide for paper production. Each day, more than 200square kilometers of forest disappear around the world due to deforestation. |
| Energy consumption | Worldwide, the pulp and paper industry is the fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for four percent of all the world’s energy use |
Even though digital technologies now available can almost completely remove dependency on paper, the low adoption of digital technologies in offices can be attributed to a lack of awareness about the impact of paper usage on the environment, easy availability of printing and photocopier machines and a lack of awareness on the latest technologies that can solve document related problems of an organization.
Digital is green – Save a Forest
Paper intensive organizations like banks, insurance companies, government agencies, healthcare companies, legal and educational organizations and also departments like HR and Purchase incur massive overhead costs. Companies spend on procuring paper, onsite and offsite file storage, printer/copy machines rental and maintenance costs, filing and office supplies costs, courier and let’s not forget the cost of time your employees waste on finding and managing paper documents.
Having said the above, technologies like Document Management Systems can help organizations manage their paper documents efficiently while saving money, time and forests too!
Yes, you read it right…Save a forest!
Jim Corbett National Park spans over an extent of 520 square kilometers, its whole area comprises of hills, marshy depressions, riverine belts, grasslands and large lake.
Here’s a simple math on how to save a forest with a Document Management System
| · Average total No. of documents digitized by customer organizations of leading Document Management System Solutions providers
· No. of times an average document is copied in an enterprise · Average total no. of documents saved by these organizations from being printed- thanks to digitization of original paper while bringing it into workflow! |
30 billion
9-11 times 300 billion |
| · Average no. of paper produced from a single tree | 8333 |
| · No. of trees saved by our customers | 36001440! |
Assuming there are 215 trees per acre and 20 ft distance between any two given trees
- 36001440 trees are the equivalent of a jungle of 167448.6 acres that equals to 669.7942 sq km
- Jim Corbett is 500 sq. km.
- Voila! Document Management System helped save a forest as big as Jim Corbett!
Here’s how you can save a forest
Consider deploying a Document Management System which can take care of your organization’s Document Management needs. It allows the end-to-end management of enterprise content like paper documents, forms and electronic files, right from capture to processing, to distribution and disposition in a clean, green and efficient manner while saving your time, money and trees
- Information Capture from Digital & Paper: A Document Management System can capture information whether in digital format or in physical form at the right instance. It can easily consolidate documents from mobiles, emails and even social channels. Imaging capabilities like scanning and document capture from copiers ensures tapping and feeding of all documents in the document management system
- Wave Goodbye to Errors: With a Document Management System you can wave goodbye to process inefficiencies and manual errors. All documents are stored in a centralized repository in searchable folders allowing you to access files easily on demand based on varied search criteria without compromising on data security. Document centric workflow monitors and tracks documents, handles exceptional cases and triggers notification on action to be taken
- Industry Standards and Compliance: A Document Management System adheres to document records maintenance needs of an organization as per the industry requirements. Deliver contextual information to business stakeholders for improved collaboration, smarter decision making and enhanced customer satisfaction. It provides the flexibility to access or delivercontent over Mobile and Cloud creating a highly connected and digital workplace.
Say yes to a Green Planet
Climate change is a reality today and is the topic of concern for world leaders. It has been widely debated at numerous forums, conventions and summits. The latest development has been the Paris agreement in which a consensus of sorts has been reached by 191 countries worldwide to synergistically be responsible for the global climate and take concrete actions to ensure that global temperature does not increase beyond 2 degrees Celsius.
While the need for collective action is recognized, on an individual level, more often than not, people tend to look the other way. Individuals, corporate, industries are hand in glove in contributing to the rising challenges in climate control. Industries and rampant usage of non-renewable fuels are common perpetrating factors to the climate change.
However, the deceptively quite menace is the use of papers in offices. So join the crusade, make your organization digital and save a forest.
By Ashok Kapoor – VP Marketing, Newgen Software
