PDF is often touted as what’s increasingly known as ‘green technology’ – one that helps us reduce our carbon footprint, and – in the case of the ‘paperless office’ – reduce a financial burden. For most businesses, going completely paperless is definitely a challenge, but with desktop PDF software, we can certainly work towards it.
It’s estimated that the ‘average person’ consumes 123 pounds of paper per annum, or; nearly 25 reams of paper.
Of these 25 reams, nearly thirty per cent comes out of our office or home printers – with 500 pages to a ream, the average person is printing somewhere around 3,500-4,000 pages, every year. That’s 90 pounds of carbon dioxide, for the more scientifically inclined.
Aside from the obvious environmental impact of paper consumption, there’s a fairly substantial business case for trying to reduce it. A ream of standard copy or print paper costs around $5, depending on the quality and quantity purchased. If you have 200 employees, a 35% reduction in printing represents a saving of over $2,500. That’s not even taking into account the reduction in printer cartridge/toner use, reduced storage/archiving requirements, electricity, reduced postal costs, and all that time spent walking back-and-forth to the printer.
It’s estimated that a 10% reduction in global paper consumption would save companies $3.5 billion.
So, next time you decide to print a report for someone, why not use Nitro Pro to create a PDF file and email it? There’s a button for that.
Using too many paper-based forms? Make them faster and easier, to fill and process, by using Nitro Pro’s form-filling capabilities.
Using PDF as a paper-substitute isn’t just good for the environment – it’s good for your bank account. Think about that every time you click ‘print’, or run another stack of paper through the shredder.
Thanks to GreenPDF.com for help with the statistics.
