The paperless office is here and it can save you tons of money (and trees) according to JP Morgan

With the growing efforts to approve the reform in health care, there's a also a growing emphasis on the budget potential savings in some of the experimental programs that the bill includes like electronic medical records, which for us of course means not only savings, but also less paper and less waste.

If there's anyone who is still questioning the fact that paperless office equals huge savings, they should take a look in the report released by JP Morgan, which suggests that a paperless office is entirely viable. It's even easier than you think they add, and last but not least, it will save you money. In other words: a green offer you can't refuse.

Now, this is not a theoretic report. J.P. Morgan launched in 2007 a Go Green Campaign and reached out to more than 25,000 clients, offering support and services to help them transition to a paperless environment. This effort, as the report explains, has has reduced more than 101 million documents since the campaign began, which is the equivalent of reducing three million pounds of paper usage, 50 million pounds of greenhouse gasses and preserving 33,000 trees!

The report gives some pretty good reasons that are pushing companies to embrace a paperless environment - economic pressures that get them to look for new ways to cut operational costs, growing transaction volume, risk of payments frauds and pressure from stakeholders to go green. As you can see these trends are quite relevant for almost every industry and every company that is using paper for its operational needs, and not just for treasury operations which the report is focusing on.

In the process of getting paperless companies will enjoy according to the report significant benefits, such as reduced transaction costs, lowered indirect business costs, increased efficiency and saved time, improved transparency and increased document security. And what about the savings in terms of $$? well, the report explains that on average filing and maintaining 500,000 pieces of paper costs firms an estimated $250,000 in workflow management, another $115,000 to research lost files, and about $150,000 in storage and disposal costs. Quick calculation shows you that cutting paper use by 500,000 sheets of paper can save a company $515,000 a year.

The alternative is electronic of course. Here's just one example of the many suggestions JP Morgan present:

Take paper out of the invoice delivery and receipt process by using an online bill presentment and payment solution like J.P. Morgan’s Pay ConnexionSM. Customers can phone in payments or use a convenient, customized Web portal to pay invoices and manage payment and account information online.

The report augers that a "zero-waste" environment, where treasury departments send and receive information electronically with no paper returned is feasible. I believe that it's feasible also in other departments that use paper and it's just a matter of identifying the right opportunities, just like in the case of the electronic medical records.

The incentives are already there, both economic and environmental - In 2007, U.S. companies spent about $8 billion on paper alone, not including costs for ink toner, or for running copiers, printers or fax machines. Xerox also estimates for every dollar spent on printing documents, companies incur another six dollars in handling and distribution. So you got here a total of potential savings of $56 billion. And the environmental impact? Well, on the same year (2007), U.S. companies printed 1.5 trillion pages, according to research firm IDC. That’s a 95,000-mile-high stack of paper, or the equivalent of 15 million to 20 million trees.

JP Morgan included in the report some interesting Eco Analysis Worksheets they developed that are aimed to help firms determine how much money they can save by moving to paper-free operations. We definitely recommend to take a look in them and see if you can figure out how much money you can save by getting your office or company paperless free. And don't forget of course the trees that you'll save (if you want to know how many, get in touch with us and we'll be happy to calculate it for you).

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

According to the Forest Carbon Markets 2009 report uncertainty is high but the market is growing

The State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009 report was released with the conclusion that "At the end of 2009, the market for forest carbon stands in an uncertain position on the verge of potentially enormous growth".

As ClimateBiz reports, "State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root & Branching Out," is based on research involving more than 100 market participants whose work encompasses 230 projects that have generated credits in 40 countries for over 20 years.

The report is explaining how the current uncertainty on the REDD and the U.S. regulation fronts generate both risks and opportunities for investors interested in forest-based carbon credits:

Already countries have committed politically in international negotiations to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and several have also committed financing. At the same time, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act awaiting it’s fate in the United States’ Senate explicitly calls for domestic forestry offsets and includes financing for REDD.

It is not possible to say what shape US climate regulation will take – or what sort of global mechanisms for funding REDD will emerge from current international negotiations. Amidst this scene of opportunity and risk, investors are still eyeing forest carbon, though many are waiting on more definite regulatory signals before taking a financial leap. Even without market certainty, infrastructure and measurement tools continue to mature rapidly. Such tools, along with years of lessons learned accumulated, will inevitably serve as the foundation for forest carbon finance in years to come.

Regardless of this uncertainty, the forest carbon market grew from $7.6 million in 2006 to $37.1 in 2008 (after a $40.5 million record in 2008). The report said the forest carbon market was worth $21 million in the first half of 2009.

This is a very interesting and important report and you can find it at http://moderncms.ecosystemmarketplace.com/repository/moderncms_documents/SFCM.pdf

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

A new report is saying printing continues to go green, but do its findings support this claim?

New report has been released with an interesting title - Printing Continues to Go Green. But looking at some of the report's findings makes you wonder if this is really so.

This 68-page report, according to the publisher WhatTheyThink, "provides an overview of the state of green printing initiatives in the U.S. commercial printing industry. The report, an update to a special primer report first published in April 2008, provides the results of a June 2009 survey of commercial printing establishments conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center".

So far so good, but let's look at couple of the findings the publisher highlights on its website:

— in a June 2009 survey conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, the top green practice that U.S. commercial printers say they have currently implemented is “identify itself in marketing and sales materials and promotions as an environmentally sensitive business,” cited by 33% of all respondents, up from the 26% who said this in a March 2008 survey;

— 43% of all responding companies said that sustainable printing initiatives are “critically important to only a select few customers,” up from 41% in March 2008;

— 26% of all respondents say they plan to implement some form of certification from an environmentally sustainable printing authority, up from 20% in April 2008;

Now, I have to say first I didn't read the report and I only refer to the information available on the publisher's website, but if these findings are in anyway indication of the other findings of the report then I'm not sure how one can see here any move of the printing industry in the direction of sustainability.

Actually, all three findings are showing the opposite. The first finding shows that most common green practice is to identify to yourself as one in marketing materials. This sounds a little troubling - wouldn't you expect it to be greater usage of FSC or recycled paper?

The second finding shows that more printers say that green printing is important only to a few customers. This is not encouraging as well.

And the last finding here show that more printers plan to implement some kind of "green" certification - but how many actually do it and not just plan to do so? I think the number of printers who already have these certifications can be a better indicator of the state of green printing.

So I'm not sure if these kind of findings justify the title of the report. I only hope the report itself include much more supporting material. In any case, it doesn't mean we don't think the printing industry is going green - we see this trend in the interviews we conduct with printers, conversations with businesses, feedbacks to our green printing tips series and news we read about almost every week.

If you have any feedback please feel free to add your comment. We'll be happy to hear your thoughts!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!