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Ideally I think being paperless is the best way to be, but the problem is whether it's really practical for ALL companies to go paperless.

ADVANTAGES

Being paperless is often cheaper. Take the simple example of writing and sending business letters. Think of the costs of producing paper, writing and printing the letters, postage and transport costs and then disposing of the paper at the end of the process. It would be much more efficient to email correspondence than incur such unnecessary costs.

And on this note, it's often much quicker to use email, mobile phones and video conferencing than to negotiate contracts via paper communication and it's the personal touch of hearing someone's voice or seeing someone's face during some of the paperless communication which is important in the business world. Even emails can be more personal and electronic relationships can develop quicker than via paper contact.

But with the current environmental climate, it's also far better for the planet to go paperless where possible. It produces less physical waste to produce and dispose of and with the added benefits of greater efficiency, there are good chances that many business deals can be struck just as easily with less paper being used. Even recycling options cost, although they're a far better option than landfill.

DISADVANTAGES

Although the physical waste would be greatly reduced with paperless communication, there are the additional costs of alternative methods of communication. If we send more emails, use phones more regularly or travel around to save the paper, there are the additional energy costs for IT equipment or extra travel expenses which organisations need to consider. This may be negligible for a small local business, but can multi-national organisations really be expected to be paperless?

If I think of where I work in education, there's no way I could expect students to work without paper. Although there's a move towards improving IT skills and using the internet with online forums, education at all levels needs paper, even if schools and universities themselves are able to reduce the amount of paper they use.

I know people who would love to go paper-free and have information emailed to them, but then find that they can't read utility bills or articles on a computer screen so they have to print the information anyway. And can solicitors and legal obligations be carried out without paper and a "physical" signature?

GREENER BUT UNREALISTIC?

So I've come full circle. Ideally I think for some companies it makes economic and environmental sense to go paper-free, but practically I don't think it's realistic for every company to follow this route at the moment.

To be fully in tune with environmental needs, we have to change our lifestyles and ways of conducting business. We can't always expect paper documents and shouldn't rely on bits of paper to run our businesses. We need to dramatically enlarge and improve technology but still understand that things like IT systems can break down, cell phones are out of range or need recharging and consequently our company may be unable to trade effectively for a while if we are completely paper-free.

So at the moment I think that being paperless is a good long-term aim and we can all certainly reduce the amount of paper we use. But to expect us all to be completely paperless isn't yet quite within reach.

Learn more about this author, Ben Hughes.
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