Simple steps to reduce printing and paper costs

Legalesign eSignature software gets you a long way to a paperless office. Here are a few tips to go even further. Many you can do right now. Technology isn't always required, read about some lesser-known behavioural tactics too. Here's a list of some easy tips and tricks to help you stop wasting paper, and money, and improve productivity too.

Step 1. Print from one central location

Instead of dozens of small printers across the office, keep printing to one central location that everyone can access. Using a central location to print also helps deter employees from printing frivolously. Something they might have printed from their desk printer might not be worth the effort of walking across the office, acting as a natural deterrent and helping promote essential printing only.

Step 2. Try two monitors

Being able to refer to two documents at once is a key reason many employees end up printing materials. Dual monitors make it easy to cross-reference from two different sources at once, naturally discouraging wasteful printing.

Step 3. Track pages per person

Tracking the number of pages printed per employee gives an incentive to print less and also an overview of the teams that print the most across the business; with this information to hand you can help work to find solutions to help cut down on how much they are printing. You can further encourage going paperless by sending a monthly report to employees showing who printed most and least, rewarding employees who achieve a paperless month.

Step 4. Scan physical documents

Scanning physical documents – like meeting minutes or notes taken during a team brainstorm – eliminates the need for photocopying or each team member using additional paper to write down the notes they need. Scan important documents and email them or provide access in the cloud or through a company intranet to help cut down on paper waste from meetings.

Step 5. Double-sided as default

Setting your printer to print double-sided by default is a simple change that can effectively half the amount of paper your business uses on a day to day basis. Double-sided printing for internal documents cuts down both on ink and paper waste, saving you money in the short and long term.

Step 6. Use Legalesign eSignature software

Contracts and other important documents account for a huge volume of printed materials in an office environment. The average document is printed 5 times, and in many cases, a lengthy document is printed just for a signature on the last page. Switching to eSignature software makes collecting traditional signatures, fast, easy and environmentally friendly. You can send out contracts with the click of a button and manage your electronic documents centrally without ever needing to print.

Check out how the Legalesign platform can benefit your business – sign up for a free trial today.