The Road to Paperless: Less-Paper

Just over a year ago, the Training Team at Third Sector New England committed to developing a “less-paper” strategy. While we were not prepared to go entirely paperless, we were willing to actively reduce the amount of office paper we use. Not paperless, but less-paper.

Less Paper Is Cooler

Our motivations were many and varied. We wanted to reduce the natural resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and pollution associated with paper. We wanted to increase our efficiency and ability to access and replicate materials consistently. We wanted to save money. We also wanted to prove that we can buck the trend and break our reliance on paper.

With less than 5% of the world's population, the United States consumes 30% of the world's paper. Paper manufacturers who use non-recycled wood fiber are large producers of hazardous air pollutants including dioxins. The paper industry is also the third largest industrial emitter of global warming pollution. Using less paper means a cooler world.

How Did We Do It?

We began to develop new communication norms for our interactions with coworkers, service partners and external constituents. We sought out simple yet effective changes that could immediately have impact. These included:

Print and copy materials on both sides of the paper.
When printing one-page documents, save and reuse the blank side to print other one-page documents.
Use a half or quarter-sheet sized paper to distribute meeting agendas printed on the back side of other one-page documents.
Use online trainer application and registration systems.
Store documents electronically.
Stop providing individually printed slides, handouts and agendas for large group workshops and trainings. Instead, provide table copies of materials for groups of 6 to share and provide electronic documents for individual use.
Use Internet-based survey systems for program evaluations.

Moving in the Right Direction

We were able to accurately measure the paper saved from the last three strategies. These alone conserved over 6,500 sheets of paper. To measure the results, we used Environmental Defense Fund’s Paper Calculator and our standard office paper with 30% post-consumer recycled content. Environmental benefits thus far include preventing the generation of:

167 pounds of greenhouse gases
608 gallons of waste water
55 pounds of solid waste

Admittedly I have mixed feelings about our results. On the one hand we saved a considerable amount of paper and associated environmental devastation in this first effort. Hopefully, our progress will set an example for others in our organization and for other nonprofits, as the process was not taxing. On the other hand, the average American is estimated to use a whopping 741 pounds of paper a year – over 10 times the amount we conserved.

Given this scale of paper use, while we are headed in the right direction, we still have a long way to go.

What Are You Doing?

What is your nonprofit organization or other group doing to save paper and save the earth? What tips can you provide for the Training Team and TSNE in general? Please leave a comment, and let us know.

More Resources on Ways to Save Paper

Conservatree tells the story of the environmental consequences of our continued heavy reliance on paper.

Environmental Defense Fund provides educational signs to encourage 2-sided printing and copying.

National Resource Defense Council provides a Smart Paper Guide for Businesses.