Trees consumed and CO2 produced by paper production has been drastically reduced with the City of Greater Geraldton, Western Australia, implementing a swath of changes to its printer fleet.
Chief Executive Officer, Ross McKim was impressed to see how simple changes in the office had resulted in a positive effect on paper consumption.
“In the 2014-15 financial year the City was consuming almost a staggering 200 trees worth of paper.
“Right now, for this financial year we’re hovering at just under 60 trees consumed – an incredible reduction that sees not only a stark drop in trees used, but also a massive reduction in CO2 production.
“This was made possible by making a few key changes in our offices, such as reducing our printer fleet and introducing swipe card release of documents from the print queue.
“We have also made the move to digitise a lot of our paper based processes – a step that businesses of any size can take to reduce paper use.”
According to conservatree.org a single tree will make an estimated 8333.3 sheets of paper, which equates to 16.67 reams of paper.
This change is the latest in the City’s effort to reduce emissions, with solar panels installed on various City buildings and implementation of various water saving measures that saw the Aquarena claim a Waterwise accolade in 2020.
Council declared a Climate Emergency in 2020, committing the City of Greater Geraldton to develop a Corporate Energy Plan that aims to transition City operations to a net zero carbon position by 2030.
