The paper industry is the third greatest contributor to global warming emissions. One ream of paper generates 18.5 pounds of carbon, excluding transportation and shipping at a direct cost of $4 per ream. With the average worker consuming some 10,000 to 12,000 sheets of paper per year, a department of 20 employees is generating over 8,880 pounds of carbon for paper consumption alone.
The Facts
Below are five facts about paper consumption that you may not be aware of:
1.Recent US Department of Commerce figures indicate that paper and printing purchases represent between 5% and 15% of all corporate expenditures exclusive of labor.
2.Per capita consumption of paper in the US is currently over 748 lbs. Developing nations, India and China, with their combined 2 billion inhabitants, consume less that 25 lbs. of paper per capita. Paper consumption has increased six-fold over the past 50 years.
3.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that 38% of our garbage is paper.
4.Commercial sources such as office buildings, schools and institutions make up 35 to 45% of all municipal solid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, about 93% of all office waste by weight is paper.
5.Per the American Forest & Paper Association, a typical business generates about 1.7 pounds of material per employee per day.
The Costs
Among the direct economic costs associated with paper consumption in business are:
• Cost of paper, ink and energy for printing, copying, and faxing
• Cost of support, maintenance and manufacturing of print devices
• Cost of shipping documents, both handling and transportation costs
• Cost of storing documents
• Cost of recycling and destruction of documents
• Cost of employees handling, sorting, filing, retrieving, searching for lost documents
When you start putting dollar figures alongside these costs, you will quickly realize how paper is eating into your profits.
Hard Dollar Costs & Carbon Footprint
For example, based on the statistics mentioned above, here’s what a 50-person small business would typically spend on paper and its resulting carbon footprint:
Each employee is responsible for 10,000 to 12,000 sheets of paper per year, or 20-24 reams of paper. At a cost of $4 per ream, each employee is responsible for $80 – 96 in paper alone. Now add ink. The typical ink cartridge costs $25 and is good for printing roughly one ream of paper. So add another $500 – 600 to the employee’s tab. The total for the company is over $40,000 just on paper and ink. This cost does not include machine maintenance costs, the technician that has to come fix it when it breaks, service plans, trips to the office supply store, etc… The same business’ carbon footprint would be 370-444 pounds of carbon per employee, or 18,500-22,200 for the whole company. Use the same parameters for a 500-person company and the carbon footprint numbers skyrocket to 185,000-222,000 pounds (92.5-111 tons) of carbon per year.
Not including commuting emissions, shipping costs, and the additional associated costs with the employees in this number is to omit a large portion of the problem. According to the Nature Conservancy’s Carbon Footprint calculator, if a person drives 1,000 miles per month in a 20-30 mpg mid-size vehicle, they produce 8.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Multiply that by 50 and 500, that produces an additional 425 and 4,250 additional tons to the corporate footprint respectively.
Time to go Paperless?
As we try to reduce our impact on the environment and think of ways to reduce carbon emissions, landfills and tree consumption, the solution is to rethink the way we work with and use paper. Whereas paper has been the main destination for information, we need to make paper, at the very least, a transitional state for information that is not the end result but simply a means to complete the process. In addition, enabling remote access to mission-critical information can offset some of the commuting impact for employees. Remote access can be gained with a document management technology that has mobile capabilities. Going paperless not only aids an organization’s green movement, but also saves them millions of dollars. Get started today by downloading the ECM Starters Kit.
About Samantha McCollough
