3 Ways to Green Your Office with Records and Information Management

A strong records and information management program helps your business lower costs, reduce the risk of a data breach, and improve profitability. It can also encourage sustainable business practices that benefit your company and the environment. Here are three ways records and information management can green your office.

1. Storing Your Paper Off-Site

The first way that records and information management helps your office become greener is by changing the way you store documents. Records retention requirements often create a crowded, cluttered workspace, which, besides dampening productivity, puts a strain on your resources. According to the Paperless Project, every 12 filing cabinets require an additional employee to maintain them, resulting in additional labor costs, energy consumption, and waste.

A professional records storage service manages your documents more efficiently and economically. On average, a file cabinet takes up six square feet of office space at the cost of $12 per month. It costs 70% less to store the same amount of information in a commercial records center. They store your documents and files on high-density racking systems, resulting in fewer resources and requiring less energy to store your information.

2. Streamlining Document Disposal and Recycling

Professional records and information management also ”greens” your office by helping you ditch your office paper shredders. The use of paper shredding machines drives up energy consumption as well as utility costs. You can streamline the document disposal process for your staff by replacing your office paper shredders with a professional shredding and destruction service. You will also create energy efficiency, since shredding at a professional destruction site is usually more efficient.

Locked collection containers enable your staff to dispose of files quickly, securely and without using any electricity. Your employees spend no time shredding, which not only benefits the environment and your utility bill, but also saves your company money in labor costs.

In addition, you no longer have to worry about information privacy each time a shredded material is tossed in your recycling bin. Professional shredding and destruction services offer a responsible, closed-loop paper recycling process. After destruction, the remains of your shredded documents are baled and sent, following a strict chain of custody, to an authorized paper recycling partner.

3. Digitizing Your Documents

According to the Environmental Paper Network, if the United States cut its office paper use by roughly 10 percent, or 490,000 metric tons, greenhouse gas emissions would fall by 1.45 million metric tons – equivalent to taking 280,000 cars off the road for an entire year.

A document scanning solution can green your office by digitizing your documents. Scanning technicians convert your documents into professionally-indexed digital images that can be distributed electronically. The need to print paper to share information is eliminated. When document scanning is supplemented with an image hosting solution, your records can be reviewed digitally in minutes instead of hours, and important data can be delivered anywhere, anytime.

By combining offsite storage, paper shredding and document scanning, a professional records management service makes it easy to green your business!

Records Management Center offers records management, data backup and media storage services for businesses throughout Augusta, Evans, Thomson, and Martinez, GA, plus Aiken, SC and the Central Savannah River Area. For more information, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.