How can a company cut paper waste simply?

Optimised Energy, the award-winning energy services business, is working to cut waste, reduce carbon and take pressure off the world’s sources of virgin timber by changing the way it uses paper.

Paper Cuts

Optimised Energy calculated that between October 2018 and September 2019 it used 13,000 sheets of paper. With an aim of reducing usage by 10% each year, the company has adopted strategies small and large to achieve its reduction targets:

• Team members are encouraged to ‘think before they print’
• Printer settings have been switched to double sided
• Paper sourcing has changed, ensuring that wherever possible the business uses recycled paper or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) paper
• Most importantly, the business is looking to eliminate the need for print altogether. Its Bureau team, for example, is moving towards electronic billing with utility suppliers where possible

Paper Trail

It’s easy to think of reducing paper consumption as a low impact exercise, but it plays a vital part in protecting natural resources and reducing carbon emissions. A 2013 European Environmental Paper Network report found “that paper has a very significant impact on the climate and that its ‘vapour trail’ accounts for the equivalent of more than 7% of global GHG emissions, which is higher than aviation emissions.”

Waste Not, Want Not

Optimised Energy’s paper reductions are part of a much broader range of waste management actions. The business is now recording the amount of waste it produces and splitting the data across four waste streams: confidential, mixed recycling, food and general waste. The company is then using the data to take further actions. The food waste from Optimised Energy’s Bristol office, for example, is being collected by GENeco, a local sustainable waste business, which uses a biomethane-powered waste collection vehicle to collect food waste from across the Bristol region which it then delivers for processing into biomethane and biofertilizer.

This story shows how Optimised Energy supports Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, specifically Target 12.5: “By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.”

About Optimised Energy

Optimised Energy is a full-service energy consulting business. They deliver energy cost and kilowatt hour savings for their clients through a ‘Managed Energy Services’ approach that combines best-of-breed hardware, software and service.

Learn more about Optimised Energy.