Question: How many trees does it take to make a carton (10 reams) of 100 percent, non-recycled 20-lb. copier paper? 

Answer: Approximately half a tree.

Half of a tree doesn’t sound like a lot, but in reality, offices in the U.S. use approximately 12.1 trillion sheets of paper per year (Jindou Lee, CIO, 2016), and we haven’t even touched on products like paper packaging, gift wrap or magazines—so, you do the math (hint: that’s a LOT of trees!)

Here are 5 simple ways to reduce your offices’ paper waste:

1. Use Recycled Paper...and Recycle Used Paper

Purchasing 100% recycled copy paper actively decreases the number of trees harvested to create non-recycled paper products, PLUS, recycling used paper helps the environment by reducing carbon emissions, saving trees, and cutting down on water use.

2. Participate in Programs like PrintReleaf

The PrintReleaf Exchange is a software platform that empowers businesses to sustain and grow the global forestry system. PrintReleaf has worked closely with industry experts in print and forestry to develop standards for measuring, offsetting, and verifying the successful reforestation of paper consumption through their registered partners, making it simple for customers to certifiably reforest their paper consumption.

We are proud to share that our customers have collectively offset the equivalent of 31,177,725 letter pages of paper consumption by reforesting 3,741 trees since joining PrintReleaf in April 2017.

You can learn more about how the PrintReleaf program can help reduce your environmental footprint and also view our Lifetime Impact Statement here.

3. Use the Duplex Printing Rule

Duplex printing ensures that every piece of paper used for print is used as efficiently as possible by making double-sided printing a part of your office policy. This method has the potential to reduce your office paper consumption by up to 50%! 

4. Follow-Me-Printing

Employing user authentication at the printer before releasing print jobs is another way to reduce paper consumption. Follow-Me-Printing will help prevent users from leaving their uncollected documents at the printer, or sending documents to the wrong printer and needing to reprint.

5. Managed Print Services

MPS provides your business with a monitoring system that enables you to identify and track levels of printing. This gives you the ability to identify waste issues in your office, giving you the opportunity to intervene and address these issues which will result in reduced paper and toner/ink waste for a smaller environmental footprint. 

Digitex prides itself on helping its valued customers reduce their environmental footPRINT by providing specialized products and services to its customers. If you’re interested in making a stronger commitment to sustainable office practices, contact a Digitex Print Specialist today.