INFORMATION

1
GREEN PRACTICE
ICT NEWSFLASH SPECIAL EDITION
How to Minimize Paper Use in Your Organization
Here are some paper use reduction strategies to
consider for your organization Analyze your
largest documents, such as publications and major
mailings to patients. Slash paper volume by using
a smaller font size, a space efficient font,
smaller margins, less white space, reduced image
sizes, and both sides of the page. Consider
lighter weight paper. Also, you can eliminate
paper use altogether by posting these documents
on-line, sending them on disk, or sending them as
an email attachment. Pare down your
distribution lists. Organizations that keep
up-to-date lists of their patients, customers,
suppliers, and staff realize great savings on
paper, postage, and staff time. The National
Change of Address program of the U. S. Postal
Service helps organizations maintain current
addresses for customers. Send internal reports
electronically or on disk. For reports that must
be on paper, use two-up (two pages printed on one
side) and two-sided printing. Conduct business
with customers and suppliers on-line, using the
Internet or a corporate extranet. Use Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI) technology for paperless
business transactions. Use your corporate
intranet and shared drives to the greatest extent
possible. Place data bases, manuals, meeting
minutes, internal phone books, newsletters and
other common documents there, so staff can access
them electronically. Train staff to use your
organizations intranet and shared drives as the
preferred means of document storage and
communication, so your organization can retrieve
documents more easily, save time, and reduce
costs. Teach staff to use password protection for
confidential documents. Use data compression
software for storing large quantities of data
electronically, rather than on paper. Reset
software before distributing it to staff. Many
software packages, like Microsoft Word and Excel,
are not designed to use paper efficiently. You
can make them more efficient by reducing the font
and margins and eliminating banner pages.
Remember to reset your email software, too.
Purchase printers and copiers capable of printing
on both sides. Establish two-sided printing as
the default. Purchase or lease digital copiers
rather than analog copiers, because they make
two-sided copies more reliably. To minimize paper
jams, train staff to keep paper in its wrapper
until ready for use and to load paper into the
machines correctly. Educate staff about the
importance of paper use reduction. Encourage
them to store files electronically rather than in
hard copy, use both sides of the page, print
email messages only when necessary, make the
least number of hard copies necessary, route
documents rather than distribute copies, post
documents in central locations, proof documents
on the computer, and use scrap paper whenever
possible. Explain the business reasons and the
benefits to society of using less paper. Put
forms on-line. There are many software options
available to do this but you can also use MS Word
or Adobe PDF. Stop ordering hard copy version
of yellow pages. Use Verizon's CD Rom version,
instead. Reduce your junk mail. Many companies
spend inordinate time sorting and delivering junk
mail, and it adds to their waste disposal costs.
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY DIVISION,
November 2010