The Greener Office

As David Brent in The Office warned about squandering paper "It doesn't grow on trees".

Such were the days when that saying was not oxymoronic, that the implied abundance of trees was fact.

The theory goes that capitalism is anti-nature because everything natural recycles or regenerates. Capitalism, by-and-by, does not recycle (though see earlier posts of carbon trading here and here).

Indeed, it is in the office, a sort of epicenter for capitalism, where a great deal of paper wasting / non-recycling occurs.

Paper is essential to the office - things are ordered on paper, put into order on paper, indemnified by paper, memorised on paper, copied onto paper, printed onto paper, so forth and so on.

One of the biggest wastes of paper in the office, I think, is this form of socialising where someone prints out something they read on the Internet for someone else. It is done with the best pro-social intentions, your colleague sees something on the 'net they think you will be interested in, they print it out for you and hand it to you.

This happens quite a lot to me in my office hours, but the literature that is palmed to me I seldom read - hence the waste. I know I shouldn't be churlish about such overtures, but I think there is a much greener alternative to this waste of paper: Talking.

Yes, if you see an article on the 'net that you think your colleague will like, talk to him or her about it. Strike up a conversation about the article.

If I may be critical, I think there is a certain laziness to printing out an article for someone else to read. It permits socialising at the same time bypassing any need to engage the person with whom we are socialising.

It's win-win situation. There is no paper waste and you are guaranteed to engage the other person, whereas - as I myself prove - with a print-out you may not.

Of course I am aware there is literature that cannot be discussed without being printed and read, such as heavy-going academic articles, or jokes that only work in print, but by and large a lot of the "social" paper that is printed out is just as good - or better - discussed rather than printed.