Reduction Strategies

Papercuts For Your Department

Page Index: General | Education | Good Office Practices
Information Technology | Public Information and Communication

GENERAL

• Identify a lead person to be the Paper Waste “Champion” for your Department.
  
  
• Recruit interested or strategically placed staff to be on your Paper Waste Prevention team.
  
  
• Ask your co-workers for their paper saving ideas.
  
  
• Decide on your top five ideas (your Plan) for reducing paper consumption in your Department.
  
  
• Estimate paper savings from each strategy. (For example, make a conservative – or not – estimate on sheets of paper you can save by duplexing.)

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EDUCATION

• Send email notification to all employees in your department about the Paper Waste Campaign. Publicize your Department's paper reduction goal.
  
  
• Publicize your Department’s paper reduction goal.
  
  
• Strategically place posters and labels for printers and copiers (available at www.seattle.gov/papercuts/).
  
  
• Share PaperCuts Top Ten Tips with staff:

1. Become conscious of your paper consumption. Do you have ideas about changes you can make to use less paper?
   
   
2. Print and copy on both sides of the paper (duplex).
   
   
3. Save space and paper by storing your documents electronically.
   
   
4. Send, request and circulate electronic copies instead of paper.
   
   
5. Use Print Preview to only print the pages you need instead of an entire document.
   
   
6. Use the "Tools/Track Changes" function to edit and share documents electronically for review.
   
   
7. Use Right Fax to send and receive faxes from your computer without printing. If you don't already see it on your desktop, you can request it from your IT Help Desk. Scan your document into the new Multifunction Machine and share or file electronically.
   
   
8. Give paper a "second chance" by using the back side of already printed paper for draft and internal documents, or to stock the paper tray in your fax machine.
   
   
9. Before printing, check to remove blank pages, consolidate with extended margins or smaller type-size, and print graphics on an "as-needed" basis.
   
   
10. Print multiple images per sheet for PowerPoint slides or drafts. For example 4 slides per side, double sided, instead of one slide, single sided will save 7 sheets of paper.

• You can find information about requirements for records retention on the City Records' website.

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GOOD OFFICE PRACTICES

• Dedicate one copier drawer to “Second Chance Paper”.
  
  
• Hold “Green Meetings” by sending agendas and documents for review by email ahead of time. During the meeting, use a white board; assign a designated note-taker. Take advantage of technology – communicate with PowerPoint instead of paper.
  
  
• Eliminate printing internal communications that are available electronically. For example, encourage employees to save electronic instead of printed copies of staff directories.
  
  
• Maintain an electronic library on your web page so employees have paperless access to departmental forms and documents.
  
  
• If you are unable to duplex on a personal printer on your desk, restrict its use to documents that require security. (And consider using "Second Chance" paper.) Send non-secure documents to the duplex capable network printer.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

• Inventory your printers, copiers and faxes to determine which are duplex capable. (If you are a DoIT Customer, call the Help Desk for assistance, 6-1212.)
  
  
• Set Duplex as default. (If you are a DoIT Customer, call the Help Desk for assistance.)
  
  
• Establish a printer policy to reduce ratio of printers to employees while upgrading to devices with higher functionality; phase out personal desk-top printers, and confirm that all staff have access to a duplex-capable printer.
  
  
• Ask staff teams to eliminate the printing of documents that could be shared or stored electronically instead of printing them.
  
  
• Consult with your IT department to learn about technological improvements that could help you save substantial amounts of paper.

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PUBLIC INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

Ask these questions:

• Can you reduce printed materials and improve services by making information available to the public electronically?
  
  
• Are all documents that the public needs accessible on your website?
  
  
• Instead of printing long documents or a collection of materials to give away at meetings and conferences, can you copy onto CD’s instead?
  
  
• Are your mailing lists “cleaned” frequently to eliminate bad or duplicate addresses?