Paper-heavy Solicitors go ‘Paper-lite’
Solicitors are known to be heavy users of paper due to court requirements and other client demands. Yet more and more solicitors are going ‘paper-lite’ and even paperless by examining how paper is consumed across the company and finding innovative ways to reduce consumption and waste.
As part of their iiE Green level accreditation, Roythornes saw an opportunity for becoming both more efficient and improving their environmental credentials in this area, and wanted to find out just where they could focus their improvement efforts.
“Our digital-first agenda aimed to embed into the culture of the business flexible and more agile ways of working, so as to enhance efficiency, improve service quality and reduce costs – helping add value for our clients and make Roythornes a great place to work for our staff! Recognising that in this information age ‘work is something you do not just a place you go to’ we aimed to support smarter working by automating everyday processes, collaborating online, operating paper-lite files, consolidating and rationalising historic paper records and enabling secure mobile access to systems. “
How did they go about it?
Roythorne’s Business Analyst and Projects Manager, Sophie Kettley, was tasked with finding out how each department across four sites used paper. The management board notified staff of the review, showing that support came directly from the top. The review looked at related working practices in each team, finding out how documents were scanned and saved, what the mandatory printing requirements were, and how incoming and outgoing post was managed.
Through informal chats with representatives from each department, they identified the heaviest users of paper, those who were already quite paper-lite, and which areas they could target for realistic improvements this year. Each department was given a rating of ‘paper heavy’, ‘paper-lite’, and even ‘paper free’. On this basis, a discussion was had around what the requirements were and whether that department was able to trial going paper-lite. These discussions gave each department the opportunity to find out what the approach could be for them to reduce unnecessary printing.
Key benefits of going paperless or paper-lite:
- Reduced costs through reams ordered, toners used, and postage saved
- Improved searchability in digital documents – a simple word find can get you the info you need without having to rifle through many pages
- More flexibility in accessing files stored in other offices
- More control over document versions and history
- Reduce time spent maintaining printed files
- Reduce energy consumed from temperature-controlled file rooms
- Save trees, energy, and carbon consumed through paper processing!
While reducing consumption remains a priority, recycling follows closely behind – right through to shredded and confidential paper waste. Through procurement, the law firm also contracted a confidential waste recycler that issues digital certificates that show how many trees have been ‘saved’ through recycling the shredded paper that has been weighed. This is a practical example of simple measures a business can take to contribute to the circular economy. It also gives the business a readymade tool to both monitor what leaves the business through the paper waste stream and also communicate to staff how they are working every angle to be greener.
If you’re not able to go paperless yet, consider how you can improve in other areas of paper consumption. For example, source recycled paper, buy Forestry Stewardship Commission (FSC) certified paper, and reuse scrap paper for notes and meetings.
