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Stretching just one copy to do the job of several can save you time and trouble, save your company money, and it's definitely an eco-smart habit to get into. Whether you’ve got a laser printer or an inkjet printer, and even if you're printing on recycled paper, the greenest printer is one that's barely used.
Print Less by Passing it Around
Start a green trend in your office by asking co-workers to pass a document on to the next person who needs to read it, instead of printing a bunch of copies and distributing them to everyone. Include a cover page on your document that has a list of the names of all the people who need to get their hands on the pages, along with a reasonable schedule of dates for when to pass it along. (You'll probably have to follow up by email to make sure it's on the move the first few times you try this idea out, but once your colleagues get used to doing things this way, it'll become a habit that takes care of itself.) Of course, this might not be so smart if you need 15 different people to read something by tomorrow morning, but if you have a little lead time, it's a great way to save paper while keeping everyone on track.
Print Less by Posting your Copy in a Common Area
Does your office have a bulletin board or notice board? Could you and your colleagues make more use of it than you currently do? If you post important documents on the bulletin board and ask people to go there to read them, instead of delivering copies to a bunch of different desks and letting all your co-workers sit on their butts in their chairs and read them there, you'll save plenty of paper, and encourage more office movement and mingling, which helps keep everyone cheerful. Most of the time, people are grateful for any excuse to get out of the cubicle, so give them an excuse by printing one copy of a document and putting it in a common area where they'll have to go visit it in order to get the info.
Print Less by Collaborating Online
Instead of dealing with copy after copy and draft after draft, invite your colleagues to check out your document on this marvelous series of tubes known as the internet. You can share a google document with your co-workers, or collaborate together on a 37 Signals writeboard. When you're all done, all you'll have to do is print one copy. In fact, you might not even have to print it out at all! Talk about greening your work life.
Related Posts:
Print Less, Work Better
How to Go Green at Work
How to Green your Writing Habits
Are you a green hipster looking for all things green and cool? Then you'll love actor and eco-activist Adrian Grenier and his team of environmental experts, who live it up with sustainable style on Planet Green TV's Alter Eco.
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