The Paperless Office

Paper documents are copied only when required (for court proceedings, say), and always double sided, unless a court or client requires single-sided copies. Clients who don’t demand paper copies are billed electronically. The firm’s marketing literature still gets printed for fear that e-mails are too easily deleted without review.

Broomell says she hasn’t tallied the cost savings to date because the firm is pursuing “greenness” mainly as a social good. But Carlson expects that economics and efficiencies will drive paper-reduction efforts at the many companies she believes will soon follow Greene Espel’s lead.

Still a pipe dream? Carlson says what’s changed in 20 years is technology and people’s habits. In the ’90s, scanners weren’t as ubiquitous as they are today. Dual monitors were nearly unheard of. Software programs that were business-specific enough to replace paper processes were rarer. And, of course, people had not been accustomed for 20-some years to working on computers instead of with paper.

Demographically and technologically, Carlson predicts, we are reaching “a tipping point” where the old dream will be realized. Not “paperless offices,” exactly, but offices with a lot less paper.