Saving Dollars And Cutting Carbon

Adopting an Electronic Content Management system, like iSynergy, will create efficiencies that will enable you to reduce your company's direct impact on your local ecosystem and create cost savings that could fund additional components of your company's Green initiative. By analyzing the costs and carbon footprint associated with paper alone, it is easy to see the recklessness of our current way of doing business.

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. 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 percent of all municipal solid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, about 93 percent 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.