Tips and Tools

Welcome to the Shrink showcase of good examples of businesses and corporations making significant paper reductions. Reducing paper wastage is a great business decision - bringing not only environmental and social benefits but also saving money. It's good for the planet and good for your bottom line!

Click on the links below for business-oriented paper efficiency stories (bear with us, we're still working on this...) or make a company pledge to save paper.

Paper Saving for Businesses

Financial sector

Magazine and book publishers

Retail and catalogues

Best Practice Resources for Efficient Paper Use

Offices

Direct marketing

Printing

Packaging

Advertising

Mail-outs and distribution

Case Studies

To see our gallery of paper saving business ideas, click here. We are currently seeking companies to showcase. If your company has a good news story to tell about how you have reduced your paper use, we want to hear about it!  Please send the following information to the Shrink Co-ordinator.

• A general description of the kind of paper reductions you have achieved (for example, office paper savings, reductions in unread paper products such as magazines or catalogues, reduced paper volumes achieved by using lighter base weights).
• An explanation of what motivated you to carry out the changes.
• Some detail about the practicalities involved in making these reductions.
• A short profile of a person or team who should get the credit for the savings.
• The quantities of paper and paper grade involved.
• Financial and other savings achieved.
• An image or two for illustration.

Does your company want to make a paper reduction pledge?

We are keen to highlight best practices on this website. Please submit a brief description of your company’s commitment to reduce paper consumption with documented evidence and a plan for how you will achieve this to hag@worldforests.org

Click here for tips and tools to help stop wasteful paper consumption in your office and ideas about what to include in your paper saving plan.

 Businesses Saving Paper

Case Study 1: No More Catalogues at Canadian Tire

The days of paper catalogues may be numbered. Many companies are deciding to cease this paper-wasting form of advertising, recognising that online stores grow ever more popular and can be kept bang up to date. Many consumers prefer to shop online, because it's quicker and easier than post or because they want to use less paper. In spring 2008, Canadian Tire announced it would cease printing the 6 million catalogues it has sent out every season for as long as anyone can remember. Its share price rose at the news, reflecting the fact that this is a sound business move.

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Case Study 2: Bank of America Checks Paper Use

Bank of America, one of the 20 biggest corporations in the world, is a global leader in finding ways to reduce paper use. It has committed top executives who have made it company policy to reduce its forest footprint, and this policy has fanned out across the organisation, with all staff being encouraged to cut their own paper use and come up with innovations that can help the company to use less resources. Bank of America does not do this because it is run by tree-huggers, but because increasing efficiency by using fewer natural resources, including paper, saves money. A cost cut of $20,000 was made on a single report, by sending out postcards notifying clients that was available on the internet, instead of printing and posting the document. When it made the receipts from its hole-in-the-wall cash machines (ATMs) smaller, lighter and optional, it saved $500,000. A year after instituting a campaign to get staff to print and copy double-sided (duplex), copy paper use was down 18%, computer paper was down 32% and the company had saved a cool million dollars. Putting forms online was worth an estimated $10 million, not including the savings in postage and storage.

At Bank of America, the strong trend to reduced paper use has been achieved at least partly by having a full time employee dedicated to tracking how much paper is used in the corporation, by whom and for what. In a report for Forest Ethics, Heather Serantis says that this means the Bank can “explain to its employees how cost savings from paper reduction helps contribute to overall efficiency. Employees can then begin to see the economic benefits for each action they take." The secret of the Bank’s success, Serantis believes, is because it has not set out to achieve a ‘paperless office’, which would be setting itself up for failure. Instead, it has committed to ‘steady dedication’, bringing about shifts and changes over a decade that amount to substantial savings, many of which they have used to invest in new systems to bring about further reductions down the line, or to pay for other environmental improvements that cost more. (Source: Paper Trails by Mandy Haggith, Virgin Books, 2008)

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Case Study 3: Hewlett Packard Reduces Breakages by Reducing Packaging

Part of packaging's role is to protect the goods inside from bumps and bruises during travel to consumers. In theory, packing fragile items in tough board boxes means they can be tossed into and out of the backs of lorries without being damaged. In reality, it may mean they are simply handled more roughly, as Hewlett Packard discovered when it redesigned the packaging for its office printers, of which it ships 5 million per month. Kevin Howard, packaging designer for the company, had the innovative idea that “by taking away the package you can lower the damage.” Instead of robust boxes filled with complex moulded buffering housing individual printers, the company shifted to distributing printers to big stores in a specially designed, reusable shelving unit wrapped only in see-through light plastic, like cling film. The unit was made to be easily lifted by a fork-lift vehicle, and the fact that the fragile printers were fully visible meant that those moving them could see that they needed to handle them with care. The result was that the packaging volume reduced by more than 90% and breakages in transit also reduced by about 5%, a real win-win situation. (Source: Paper or Plastic, by Daniel Imhoff, Sierra Club Books 2005).

Case Study 4: Patagonia Discovers Less Packaging Means More Sales

A major role of packaging is to signal to, attract and inform potential customers. Many food product labels are made of paper: sashes on tins, sticky labels on fruit, and the myriad cardboard packets that are used to conceal the cellophane-wrapped contents within, be they sausages or sweeties. Non-food products are also often wrapped in distinctive packaging, not so much to protect the contents physically, but for brand identification. But in some cases, the packaging may be getting between the goods and the people interested in buying them, as outdoor-clothing company Patagonia found out. In the words of a Patagonia spokesperson: “In the early days of our base layer business, when we were still selling polypropelene, we packaged it in a plastic bag with a cardboard tag, which cost us 20 cents per unit. Next, we shifted to paper packaging, similar to a mini grocery store bag. Our environmental impact was lower, and the cost came down to 16 cents a unit. Now, with our Capilene line, we just roll up the bare garment and wrap it with a recycled cardboard card and two rubber bands. We call it the "sushi roll."... It's reduced our costs to 6 cents per unit and eliminated tons of waste. As an added advantage, the exposed packaging allows customers to touch the product, which has actually increased sales. Retailers thought it was going to be terrible: they told us time and time again that consumers would hate the sushi roll. But again, when you do the right thing, success follows." (Source: Dogwood Alliance)