12 Steps to Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
By Merle Laird
Earth-friendly processes and lowering energy consumption are becoming increasingly hot topics in workplaces. This is an area where there are not only incredible benefits to the environment by reducing or eliminating paper in our respective industries, but also huge savings.
When you consider the energy that goes into cutting the tree, transporting it with high fuel costs, and energy to run the mills and then of course shipping it to the manufacturing plants that produce the forms, this hardly seems worth it. Furthermore, think about all the human activity that goes on to move paper forms and documents from one person or office to another. Think of all the extra value-added activities we could achieve if we actually let technology do the work for us. We could spend that extra time with clients delivering more of what they want from us.
While these are all good reasons to start going green, you might still be saying: "What can I do to reduce the operational costs and get rid of the paperwork?"
Great News! There are 12 simple steps you can take to help you let go of your hard copy forms and documents. But it takes commitment from all levels of the team within the organization. And like anything else, it's one day at a time!
- Gather the facts (from the front line staff).
- Develop a detailed process map identifying interactivity between departments
- Bring together teams representing all departments involved in the process to brainstorm new out of the box thinking for improvements.
- Empower your front line staff, they know what changes could make a huge difference to your bottom line (they might even be doing it, it's just not formalized).
- Complete a real simplified business case or Cost Benefit Analysis to see what savings you could achieve.
- Develop a process map for your desired Future State process.
- Set priorities for which ideas can implemented first.
- Determine an action plan with Person Most Responsible and implementation date.
- Recruit team members to be part of the continuous Improvement teams developed for change.
- Recruit team members to be part of the continuous Improvement teams developed for change.
- Re-invest in your people by training and development.
- Celebrate your win!
Your biggest assets for going "green" include:
- E-forms easily replace printed forms
- Document management software is so readily available to scan and get rid of archived documents
- IT Workflow solutions can route the form around the department or organization without a person leaving their desk
- Team Collaboration spaces are everywhere to keep teams together even if they are separated by thousands of miles or even file cabinets or offices
- Incorporate Instant Messaging
- Incorporate instant messaging
- Web based solutions - like document web-stores or portals (for organizations receiving orders from other organizations)
Call it a Green Team Building Exercise! Have a contest to challenge each team to come up with the greenest business solution and then celebrate!! Not only will your organization be streamlined in your processes but also one that is closer to the global mandate to reduce our carbon footprint!
To learn more about improving going green in your business, contact Merle Laird at 613.342.2200 ext. 106 or at mlaird@bizxcel.com.
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Merle Laird is a Business Process Analyst with over 20 years experience working with manufacturing industries, service organizations, health care, social services, government and non-profit organizations. She has extensive knowledge of business process improvement and forms design in the management industry.
