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 or make a company pledge to save paper.

Please note that our listing of companies here does not constitute endorsement by our member organisations of any of their activities - other than their paper reductions!

Paper Saving Businesses

Financial sector: Standard Life, Barclays, Bank of America

Magazine and book publishers: IPC Media, Haymarket

Retail and catalogues: Littlewoods, Duchy Originals, Canadian Tire, Patagonia

Not-for-profit and charitable: OxFam GB

Best Practice Resources for Efficient Paper Use

Offices

Direct marketing

Packaging

Mail-outs and distribution

Case Studies

To see our gallery of paper saving business ideas, click here. 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.

Will your company 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: Standard Life pledges to shrink paper by half

UK finance company Standard Life has committed to reduce its paper use by 50% by 2012, becoming the first company to make a pledge with the Shrink project. It has already made a cut of 23%, saving 320 tonnes of paper.

Standard Life's consultation with its more than 1.5 million shareholders revealed that only 6% actually want to receive paper mailings.

Their paper reduction commitment is the result of an overarching environmental strategy to consume less, recycle more and dispose sensitively of what remains, and it goes side-by-side with other great environmental paper commitments such as using 100% recycled paper for photocopying and office printing and ensuring any non-recycled content in paper for marketing literature is certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Its paper cuts so far have saved, by our calculations (with all our usual caveats about approximates based on averages for the paper industry etc), the equivalent of more than 8000 trees, 32 million litres of water, 384 tonnes of air, water and solid pollution, and more than 2000 tonnes of climate change emissions.

So how has Standard Life achieved its paper reductions? Through a combination of reduced mailings and office efficiencies. A consultation with its more than 1.5 million shareholders revealed that only 6% actually wanted to receive mailings like AGM notices on paper and the rest wanted to ‘Go paperless’. The company has therefore been able to make big shifts to online communications.

To get office reductions they ran a company pledging scheme, whereby 700 employees pledged to “think before printing, if printing to print duplex and two pages to one side”. The initiative is supported by a Green Team whose members have communicated the message, and given practical assistance like helping staff to set up local printing functions to print duplex and supporting the implementation of new technologies. The company has both upgraded and reduced the number of printers, cutting the number by half and ensuring that all have duplex facilities and other environmental benefits like energy saving.

As well as the the environmental benefits, the result is a substantial saving in costs of paper, energy, postage and storage space.

(Case study material provided by Rachel Turner, Standard Life)

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Case Study: Littlewoods cuts footprint on the woods

Littlewoods, one of the UK’s largest and most well-known catalogue retailers, has saved 1.3 million trees in the past three years by reducing its paper consumption by more than 50,000 tonnes. The company has made drastic cuts, of up to 66%, in the volume of paper used to create catalogues. As well as making a huge reduction in its forest footprint this has also saved 5 billion litres of water, reduced paper-related carbon emissions by 315,000 tonnes and avoided 60,000 tonnes of other pollution.

The paper reductions have been due to a combination of factors, including a drive to shift purchasing online. Littlewoods’ parent company, Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited, has been rationalising to prepare itself for the 21^st century and by merging the customer databases for several brands it now sends out far fewer catalogues by post. It has also cut the number of pages in its catalogues, reducing their weight. Its latest catalogue is smaller still and instead of including full details of goods it is a directory designed to point customers to the internet site. The company aims for 70% of its sales to be online by 2010.

(Case study material provided by Ken Roberts, CDMS Ltd)

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Case Study: Getting smart about magazine distribution

UK magazine publisher IPC Media has saved 9600 tonnes of paper – that’s almost a quarter of a million trees – in an efficiency drive that has slashed the number of unsold magazines.

IPC Media has many popular brands, including NME, wallpaper, Homes and Gardens, Woman and Home, Country Life, Marie Claire, The Field, Woman, What’s on TV, Nuts and Rugby World. More than 60% of women and 45% of men in the UK read an IPC magazine, most of which are supplied on a ‘sale or return’ basis to retailers. Any unsold magazines are returned for recycling, but this wastes paper and is costly.

IPC set about devising efficiency measures in its supply chain, together with distributor Marketforce. These include computer models that can forecast sales more accurately and new technology for better print order planning. They have introduced sales-based replenishment systems to wholesalers and points of purchase, so the stock of magazines in shops can be topped up as needed, rather than overstocked just in case they might sell well. People are just as big a part of the measures as technology: they have put in place a  dedicated team of supply and demand experts and worked on improving communication with their wholesalers and distributors, especially about magazine brands, so that everyone in the supply chain is better informed and able to avoid waste.

The results are impressive: unsold magazines have reduced by 16% since the end of 2006, with 30 million fewer unsold magazines, giving a total saving of 9,600 tonnes of paper. By our calculations (with all our usual caveats about approximates based on averages for the paper industry etc) IPC Media’s paper reduction has saved around 249,600 trees, 960 million litres of water, 11,520 tonnes of air, water and solid pollution and at least 60,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

(Shrink case study material provided by Adrian Hughes, IPC Media)

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Case Study: Chocolate boxes go on a diet

Duchy Originals has produced a sleek new carton for its luxury organic chocolates, demonstrating that shrinking packaging volume by half can bring benefits for branding as well as financial and environmental savings.

Susan Haddleton, Duchy Original's Head of Sustainability and Procurement, recently joined the Duchy team. She has an ideal back ground in food policy, sustainable development and food packaging. Shortly after joining she looked at the Duchy products with the notion "if products could talk, what would they say?" She knew immediately that she needed to be using a lot less resources to package the chocolate 'bezants' (large luxury organic chocolate coins) and that the paperboard that was used needed to come from sources she could trust. The existing paperboard packaging weighed 68g and it held 200g of product.
 
She contacted the carton manufacturer and started to look at options that would allow for lighter, more resource efficient, packaging. This included looking at different elements and designs within the trade as well as the manufacturer's ideas on carton closure options. Susan then worked with a design agency to agree the carton shape and finer detail. She also worked with the chocolate producer, and Duchy's own technical department to get further input.
 
The resultant carton is no longer rigid like its predecessor, which means it can be transported flat prior to filling. Previously the rigid container meant that a lot of air was being transported as well as the cartons! The new carton is also Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified under its 'mixed sources' label - the wood fibre comes from a mix of FSC certified and other controlled sources. In addition Duchy made a priority of choosing a UK-based carton supplier and a UK-based paper mill, Iggesund in Workington. The chocolate bezant packaging now weighs 26g and holds 160g of product. Weight for weight this is a 48% reduction.
 
Susan and the team at Duchy are viewing the new carton as a journey. They are learning along the way and see it as just one step on the road to greater sustainability. The carton can be improved further, says Susan, especially with regard to telling the sustainability story of the chocolate and a more premium unique carton profile.
 
Overall the product redesign meant Duchy not only saved paper but also had an opportunity for improving its branding and product information. The new packaging takes up less space on the shelf, allowing more product into the same space. The new look package helps to present the bezants as both a premium and a sustainable product.

In total, this single redesign has saved 8.9 tonnes of packaging, and we estimate that this means Duchy Originals has saved 231 trees, 890,000 litres of water, 58 tonnes of carbon emissions and 10.7 tonnes of other air, water and solid pollution.

(Shrink case study material provided by Susan Haddleton, Duchy Originals)

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Case Study: Sell more magazines, make less waste

Haymarket, one of the UK's biggest magazine companies, has already cut office paper use by 33% since 2005, saving more than 26 tonnes of paper, and it is has set itself the target of a further 15% reduction in 2009.

The results of their efficiency gains are substantial money savings. Erica Okpokpor of Haymarket says: "Not only has the spend on paper reduced year on year but some of the reduction strategies implemented have generated secondary benefits, such as a reduction in the number of printers used, reduced maintenance costs on equipment, lower toner costs and the freeing up of valuable floor space."  This has included replacing desk-top printers with a central pool of printers set to print double-sided.

The spirit of efficiency is spreading from their offices to their core business. Although their aim is to sell more magazines, they intend to make substantial savings by making sure that they print no more than they can sell. Working with distributor Frontline, they have set a target to reduce their unsold magazines by 50%.

"Targets help to drive cost savings and operational efficiency, improve purchasing decisions and support and enhance our reputation as a company that takes its environmental responsibilities seriously." Paul Baglin, VP Barclays Capital

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Case Study: Barclays saves a packet by saving paper

Barclays Capital in the UK has saved £200,000 through office paper efficiency measures that have cut in-house paper use by 48.1%.

The cost savings include energy and toner reductions as well as the actual cost of the 20 million sheets of paper they have saved. This 90 tonne reduction is the equivalent of 2340 trees, nearly a million litres of water, 567 tonnes of CO2, and more than 100 tonnes of other pollution. 

One of the bright ideas leading to the paper savings was to reformat internal investment presentations known as 'pitch books', from single-sided A4 to double-sided A5. In one year, this new format's use in London saved 7.7 million sheets of paper! A further 3 million sheets were saved by reducing valuations mailed to clients from 14 to 5 pages, and contract note schedules from 20 pages down to 1 page.

Shifting to a managed print service has also brought about both paper and energy efficiencies. One of the technological innovations is the use of 'PIN to collect', whereby staff use a swipe card to pick-up printouts from central printers, thus both ensuring confidentiality and reducing waste from forgotten print-jobs.

Barclays has set a target to keep reducing paper use by 4% each year. Paul Baglin,Vice-President responsible for Environmental Management, says "Targets help to drive cost savings and operational efficiency, improve purchasing decisions and support and enhance our reputation as a company that takes its environmental responsibilities seriously."

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Case Study: Reduction of Paper Consumption Within Oxfam GB

(data and text provided by Alex Cole-Hamilton)

Tackling climate change is central to Oxfam’s work to fight poverty because it hits poor people first and worst. To support our campaigning and programme messaging we have committed to reduce our own carbon footprint. As paper accounts for 12% of our annual carbon emissions, we worked to reduce paper consumption by 50% in the past three years.

Oxfam has achieved this not only by focusing on ways to reduce consumption, but has also responded to the changing fund-raising market. Steps taken include: utilising recent innovations in digital print and design, providing internal training to purchasers and key stakeholders about print products and increasing our understanding of Oxfam’s paper supply chain. Oxfam was also one of the first organisations in the UK to utilise the Royal Mail Sustainable Mail tariff, which imparts cost savings to responsibly produced mail packs that reduce their environmental impacts.

As our Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue accounts for over a third of our total paper consumption, we employed key strategies in marketing, design and procurement, resulting in a considerable reduction of paper usage from 831 tonnes in 06/07 to 202.5 tonnes in 08/09. Similarly, our Inside Oxfam publications saw a reduction in paper consumption by 37 tonnes in the years 06/07 to 08/09. This was predominantly as a result of using press efficient sizes in design, reducing the size of the magazine from 220 x 220mm to 198 x 210mm, which also equated to a saving of nearly £40,000.

Finally, by targeting the appropriate recipient groups for the above publications more accurately and by maximising communication channels, Oxfam was able to minimise our carbon footprint as well as experiencing savings from waste and material reduction.

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Case Study: 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: 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: 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: 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)