Office Paper
When computers arrived the promise of the paperless was ubiquitous but fast forward 25 years and we're still working in offices surrounded by paper, with printers churning out ream after ream of printed documents, filing cabinets stuffed to the gills with reports and those waste paper bins are still overflowing. Yes, flash drives, removable hard drives and palmtops have cut down the amount of paper we cart around in our briefcases, but the utopian ideal of the truly 'paperless office' is as distant now as it was a quarter of a century ago.
Paper is still one of the largest volume consumables purchased by the humble stationary manager. Every stationary delivery is made up of at least half a dozen boxes of 'office paper', each with at least five reams of paper encased in each box. So if office paper is still very much a staple of everyone's working life, how can you save yourself and your company a small fortune by choosing the right paper?
It all depends on how much paper you use and what you want the paper for (and making paper aeroplanes doesn't count). Buying the cheapest possible paper may seem like a good idea, but is that paper suitable for your printer? Cheap paper is often very lightweight and while it's fine for scribbling rough notes on, putting it through a printer may cause it to wrinkle or even jam. The best weight for general-purpose office paper is 80gsm. This weight of paper is perfectly suited to almost all types of printers and photocopiers and will reduce the number of hair-tearing inducing jams and foul-ups throughout the course of a working week.
As people become more conscious of the impact they're having on the planet, companies are choosing to use recycled paper as a matter of course. When recycled paper started to hit the business world, the quality was dreadful and it still had to shake off the 'lentils and sandals' image that recycling had in the 1980s. Today, if you choose not to use recycled paper it's seen as a business faux pas and can impact on your overall environmental policy and consequently your image as an ethical organisation. Using recycled paper and envelopes is considered to be the bare minimum that businesses can and should do to play their part in saving the planet. Recycled paper is of a far higher quality and is now indistinguishable from non-recycled paper.
If you're really keen on keeping an eye on your carbon footprint, there are calculators on the Internet that can tell you exactly how many trees are being used in the production of your paper. If you're serious about your green credentials, you can use these calculators to offset the amount of paper you consume by enrolling in a scheme that replenishes the world's dwindling forests. It all counts towards your eco-score and could help to really impress your more environmentally aware clients.
It's always worth keeping a couple of boxes of top quality paper such as Conqueror for the MD's letters and correspondence. But for general office duties, a ream of standard, 80gsm A4 paper is inexpensive and will cover almost all other requirements, from faxing (yes, people still do fax) to photocopying and printing. The paperless office is still a distant pipe dream and for the foreseeable future, stationary deliveries will still be made up of boxes of office paper, ethically sourced and destined to be an integral part of the perfect paper aeroplane in offices the world over.
About the Author
Selecting the correct paper supplies for your office can save both time and money. Mark Bartley offers advice and tips on many aspects of office management.
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