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CHAPTER

Going Paperless

arly iPhone adopters didn’t just get the trendiest gadget of 2007 when they slapped
down their money. In many cases, when the first bills arrived to customers they were
Ethe size of—forgive the pun—phone books.
It turns out that service provider AT&T sent out phone bills that enumerated each
month’s charges in such detail that the bills were hundreds of pages long. In some cases,
customers got their bills delivered in cardboard boxes. Those mammoth bills were quickly
scaled back to more reasonable sizes, but it underscores the appeal of electronic billing and
going paperless.

NOTE One blogger estimated that if Apple reached its goal of having 10 million iPhone users by the
end of 2008, it would necessitate 74,535 trees being cut down and turned into paper every year,
assuming an average 100-page monthly bill.

It costs a lot of money to print a bill and mail it (even more if it’s 300 pages long and
shipped in a cardboard box). But many businesses still use that method, because they
simply don’t want to change. Paperless billing doesn’t just save your organization lots of
money—it’s environmentally conscious as well. If your organization can go paperless, the
change will save trees and money.
Being completely paperless might be a pipe dream. People just like to hold paper. That’s
why newspapers and magazines—despite having a web presence—are still printed and
sold. That’s why you’re holding this book right now.
This chapter examines the practice of taking your organization in a paperless direction,
and explains what you can do to reduce the amount of paper your organization consumes.

Paper Problems
Using so much paper, across the organization, is taking its toll. It’s taking its toll on the
environment and your bottom line. Let’s take a moment to consider just what overuse of
paper is doing—both globally and locally.

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