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In June 1975, a Business Week story touted the "paperless office" as the wave of the future.   Fax machines and the advent of the Internet foretold a society in which the idea of logging forests for paper would itself be a concept headed for the trash bin.

Instead, over the next 35 years, we actually started using more paper, mostly because of technology demands for printing.  Home office paper use skyrocketed throughout the 80's and 90's right along with sales of smaller and more affordable printers.    Paper, paper forms and envelopes still account for more than 35% of wholesale revenue in the Office Supply industry.  (source: D&B's First Research "Office Supply and Paper Distribution" Industry profile quarterly update report 10/27/08).    And sadly, over 70% of the waste generated by offices is still paper.

However, the tide may at last be changing.   More and more banks are selling online services and encouraging their clients to receive their statements online, law firms are moving toward electronic format procedures, and businesses everywhere are understanding that reducing paper consumption produces an immediate and positive impact to the bottom line.

With a hat tip to Simply Stephen (and our friends at the Environmental Paper Network), here is a baker's dozen tips to reduce paper consumption in your office:

1. Go Double Sided - Before throwing a piece of paper away, flip it over and if the back side is blank, use it again.  Most of the stuff we print is for our own use, anyway.

2. Ask Yourself - Do I really need to print this?  And especially for those of us that are meticulous filing types, can I retrieve this information electronically if I need it again?

3. Single Copy - Keep the default # on the copier set to 1.  Rather than print a copy for everyone in the office, print a single copy and pass it around.

4. Collect Scrap - Post-it notes are the most expensive scrap paper around.  Keep a box of real scrap paper handy for the scribbles.

5. Format Documents and make sure they are ready for print to reduce waste.   In Microsoft Word, go to "File", then "Page Setup" and choose "Reduce Margins" and set your margins to smaller numbers.  Use efficient fonts like Times New Roman or Arial that use less space and keep the page count to a minimum.

6. Recycle Box - keep a box near everyone's desk to make paper recycling easy.

7. Recycle Station - set up an area in your office that encourages everyone to recycle.

8. Choose Environmentally friendly paper.   100% PCR (post-consumer recycled) and FSC certified is the way to go.

9. Print in Black and White.

10. Buy efficient printers.

11. Use recycled ink.

12. Turn the printer off when you aren't using it.  This saves energy and also makes us think twice before printing something that doesn't really need to be printed.

13. Send an email. 

If you reduce paper consumption in your office, you will have a positive impact on the environment as well as your company's bottom line.   Challenge your office to implement a paper reduction strategy.   Spread the word and maybe some day we can make the myth of the paperless office a reality!