As much as technology has rendered paper practically obsolete, every office is still using a lot of paper. Although you may not be able to go completely paperless, you can take steps to significantly reduce paper use at the office. You also need to implement a recycling program to properly dispose of any paper products that cannot be eliminated.
Reducing paper at the office
We understand that it’s hard to completely let go of paper at the office. We still take a certain amount of comfort knowing that we have a hard copy of significant documents, contracts, and proprietary information. However, technology has made it much more efficient, safe, and cost-effective to bypass the hard copy and go straight to virtual methods. Reducing paper at the office has benefits to your productivity, efficiency, expenditures, and carbon footprint.
Virtual document sharing
Having a hard copy may be great as a back-up, but there are so many virtual backup solutions that a filing room is no longer a necessity. Having all of your data in virtual filing cabinets allows for a more efficient flow of information, where anyone can access important documents from anywhere at any time. Everyone will also have access to the most up-to-date information at all times. If you make changes to a hard copy, you will need to print out a new copy and share it with everyone. This is inefficient and time-consuming. Forget about having a hard copy and start using a virtual file-sharing program.
Electronic agendas and presentations
Remember when you’d get an email with the breakdown of an upcoming meeting, plus a few attachments and you’d print them out and take them to the meeting? Those days are over. You don’t have to print anything out, you can simply view everything on your device.
Paying bills online
Set up electronic bill payments so that you eliminate paper bills altogether. You will also help reduce the amount of paper you send to clients in the form of bills and receipts of payment. So, you’re not only reducing paper at the office, but you are reducing the amount of paper you are dumping on your clients, expecting them to recycle.
Secure destruction of sensitive documents
Recycling sensitive documents need to be handled with care. You don’t want to simply dump sensitive documents into the paper recycling bin. Sunrise Sanitation has an office shredding service that promises secure destruction of sensitive documents. You can schedule a regular pickup of your paper products, and get a certificate of destruction so that you can rest assured that no sensitive data will get into the wrong hands.
Sunrise Sanitation provides waste management and recycling service to your home, business, and job-site in West Virginia and Maryland.
