My article on Triple Pundit on how Allstate reduced its paper use, saving both trees and money

Here's an update on a new article I published today on Triple Pundit on Allstate's achievement to cut its paper use internally by 41 percent and externally (customer focused reductions by eliminating unnecessary customer bill documents for example) by 12 percent, saving not just many trees but also a lot of money!

The article is entitled "Allstate Cutting Paper Use Drastically, Saving Both Trees and Money". Here's the first paragraph of the article: 

The insurance company Allstate uses a lot of paper – in 2009 it used approximately 3.7 billion sheets, equal to approximately 450,000 trees. So it’s not surprising that the company identified paper reduction as one of its top environmental priorities, setting a goal of reducing overall office paper use by 25 percent by 2010. In their latest CSR report, which was released earlier this week, Allstate is revealing that it actually did much better, reducing its office paper use last year by 41 percent.

To read the full article go to http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/09/allstate-cutting-paper-drastically-saving-both-trees-money/


Links to other articles I wrote for Triple Pundit can be found at http://www.triplepundit.com/author/raz-godelnik/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant trees for your books!

Green printing tip no. 47: Does green printing cost a lot more money?

We are back today with a new tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you information on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Today Greg is discussing the costs of green printing and is showing how going green with your next printing job doesn't necessary mean you should pay a hefty premium for it.

Does Green Printing Cost a Lot More Money?

Tip #47

This is the number one question people ask me about Environmental printing.

My response is NO, it does not cost more if you follow some basic Green Tips.

First: Analyze your job to see if it is an offset (soy inks) job, or a
digital job (100% non toxic toner). Both are terrific processes.

My rule of thumb is, whatever can fit on 500 sheets of 14 x 20 paper that we run digtally, in 4 color printing, is probably a digital job, based on cost.

What can fit on 500 sheets?

1. 4500 postcards, size 4.25 x 6
2. 10,000 business cards
3. 1000 fliers, 8.5 x 11
4. 2000 (4 panel) greeting cards if 4.5 x 6.25 when folded.

That is a pretty good start. After 500 sheets I will check both offset and digital pricing, up to 1000 sheets.

The reason digital is less money, up to 500 sheets, is there are no start up costs, like offset printing has. i.e. No plates, make ready, etc. At 500 sheets (break even point), the start up costs are amortised , and each sheet after that (break even point) is less money printed on an offset press.

Secondly: Accept a less white 100% PCW paper and you will save $1.00 per pound on the
paper. Run 500 pounds of paper on your job, and you have a $500-$600 savings on the paper.

Most people can't tell which paper is whiter, unless they put two grades next to each other. And, if you have solid coverage, you will never guess which is whiter.

Thirdly: Be flexible on selecting your final size for your print project. A classic example is Greeting Cards. In #4 above, I say we can get 2000 greeting cards, if you choose 4.5 x 6.25 as the final, folded size. The flat size is 9 x 6.25. We can fit (4) sheets of that size on a 14 x 20 sheet of paper that we will print on.

If , on the other hand, you go with the more common folded size, 5 x 7,
printed from the flat size, 10 x 7, we can only fit (2) sheets on our 14 x
20 sheet size. You would only get 1000 finished cards.

That is an "enormous" cost difference, and we would have to throw away a
huge amount of paper waste.

So, I have only listed 3 ways, to make being Green in your printing affordable. There are a lot more ways than that, but these are the easiest to do.

For additional information, please visit www.gregbarberco.com and www.ecofriendlyprinter.com. You're also invited to contact Greg via email at greg@gregbarberco.com

You can find links to all the tips at http://www.ecolibris.net/greentips.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

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!