Reduce paper's environmental and cost impacts with Adobe

Posted: 26.05.09  |  Created by: Calum Russell

In today’s competitive marketplace, businesses are committed to pursuing the highest standards of efficiency and productivity. At the same time they are increasingly coming under scrutiny for their environmental practices.  What is the environmental impact of a purchase?  What are the ‘green’ benefits of new technologies adopted?

For many years now Adobe has been at the forefront of the electronic content creation and management technology. In recent years there has also been increased interest in the environmental benefits of Adobe products. Adobe innovations in the PDF format, and products such as Adobe Acrobat, Flash, Connect and LiveCycle ES, have vastly expanded the avenues for efficiently communicating rich, interactive content across electronic networks, while also helping to offset the reliance on paper-based documentation -- and the environmental impacts of paper.

Paper – an environmental issue

Traditionally, businesses have relied heavily upon natural resources to supply their paper needs, with drastic implications for waste generation and pollution.

A recent Adobe White Paper reports that despite continued efforts to encourage recycling, global production of paper remains at approximately 272 million tonnes annually.  This comes at a substantial cost to the environment – not only in the felling of trees and deforestation but also in paper manufacture, which draws heavily on water resources.

Over 170,000 litres of water is used for every tonne of paper produced. The breaking down of the wood fibres consumes energy too, often in the form of coal, and producing vast amounts of C02. US figures show that paper manufacture is the fourth-highest industrial emitter of carbon dioxide.

Paper consumption

As the facts on this Paper-Less Alliance website show, in Australia we use a staggering 1.6 million tonnes of writing and printing paper every year, with the average Australian employee using about 10,000 sheets of A4 paper.  Paper currently makes up the largest component of office waste and use is set to increase by 50% over the next 10-15 years unless current habits change drastically, increasing costs for business.

Further, the real cost of paper is many times more than the purchase price. Paper’s costs increase each time it is handled, copied, filed, stored and discarded. It makes no sense, when the majority of our business transactions could be done electronically.

That’s why Adobe has come on board as the Principal Sponsor of the Paper-Less Alliance. We share the Alliance’s commitment to reducing office paper use in Australia, and its costs to the environment and to business.

Electronic documents ease environmental footprint and save money

While many businesses have begun to use recycled paper and to recycle paper waste, it is only through a reduction in purchase that the demand for paper and the environmental effects of its production will ultimately be substantially reduced.

Adobe provides its customers with an integrated suite of products that support end-to-end digital workflows, mitigating the environmental impact of paper based business.

Adobe Acrobat, for example, gives organisations the ability to create and distribute electronic forms, streamline document reviews, and combine and distribute documents to multiple parties. Standard text-based materials, spreadsheets, technical drawings, and a range of other content can be converted to a rich, interactive PDF, enabling fast, efficient distribution of the materials electronically to recipients across the globe.

The adoption of digital documentation brings efficiencies and environmental benefits.  By creating and distributing electronic materials, organisations reduce paper purchase, printing and transportation costs, and are able to be flexible in their approach to managing ongoing document changes – unlike with printed documentation, digital documentation can be easily controlled with security policies and modified if allowed. Filing and storage costs are also dramatically minimised, both in terms of expenditure on administration and the costs of physical storage space.

The Roche, Synergy Capital Management and Department of Health and Ageing case studies on this website show how major Australian organisations in diverse sectors are using Adobe solutions to lower costs, significantly boost productivity and help the environment by reducing reliance on paper.

In short, to succeed, organisations must advance and remain competitive. But with electronic document creation and distribution systems there’s no need for this to come at the expense of the environment.  On the contrary, moving paper based practices to the electronic space with Adobe solutions is a win-win for the planet and the bottom line.

Calum Russell – Group Marketing Manager (Australia and NZ), Adobe

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