What ever happened to the paperless office?

Rosalyn Harris  June 12 2008 11:23:59 AM

This month marks the 33^rd anniversary of  BusinessWeek’s influential article The Office of the Future. Published in 1975, the article presents an in-depth analysis of how word processing will reshape the corporate office, predicting that by 1990 most record handling would be electronic. The presence of word processors in the workplace was supposed to lead a paperless office which would save companies money on storage and supplies, also making the world a greener place to live. So how far away from a paperless world are we?

Present day research shows that in 2007 U.S. companies printed 1.5 trillion pages. That’s the equivalent of 15 million to 20 million trees. It also amounts to an estimated $8 billion; not including the cost of ink, toner, or running copiers, printers, and fax machines. (Incidentally, we have a network faxing solution that can help reduce paper waste, save on costs associated with toner, and help reduce the amount of energy wasted by leaving traditional fax machines running.)

It’s no wonder that with these kinds of expenses corporations of all sizes are taking steps towards running cleaner, greener and more sustainable businesses. Annual reports are printed on recycled paper, employees are encouraged to print only what is truly necessary, and when possible to use both sides of the page. Many financial institutions offer their customers attractive incentives to switch to paperless banking and healthcare providers are turning towards electronic medical records. But for some sectors, for example family law, the change comes slowly and with much resistance.

Looking at 2007 statistics, it’s obvious that we’re still a ways away from having truly paperless offices. So maybe the solution is to have offices that use less paper, while we continue to dream of an office that is paperless.


In 2004, Statistic Canada reported that paper consumption had more than doubled since 1983. This growth was attributed to the arrival of the personal computer in the early 1980s and to the high availability of printers and traditional fax machines in the workplace.

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