Printing pleas

You’re probably vaguely aware that IU has granted you a generous “print quota” of 650 pages a semester.\nI’m not a tree hugger, but I decided to figure out how much paper would be used should every single one of IU’s 38,990 students decided to utilize this quota to the maximum point allowed. Six hundred fifty pages multiplied by 38,990 means that IU students are allotted 25,343,500 sheets of paper a semester. \nDouble that for the academic year, and that means IU provides more than 50 million “free” sheets of paper to the student body.\nNot everyone uses all of their allotment, but on the flip side, not everyone ceases their paper consumption at 650 pages every semester on the dot. \nStill, that’s a whole lot of paper. \nAccording to Greenprint Technologies, Americans use enough sheets of 8-by-10 paper every year that you could build a 10-foot wall from New York to Tokyo and beyond with it.\nMy interest was piqued when I saw that a friend of mine had what some people refer to as a “Don’t Print Plea” as the signature on all the e-mails she had sent me from her office e-mail address. \nHer particular tag line reads “Conserve Resources – Please Print This Email Only If Necessary.” \nIt may seem like a minor step – so what if people stop and think twice about whether they really need to print the e-mail? Imagine those in the corporate world who sometimes have to compulsively check their e-mail for new messages every five minutes. If one person printed two less e-mails a day, that alone would save 730 sheets of paper a year. \nDespite the stereotype of the dreadlocked, hemp-wearing image of a stereotypical tree hugging hippie, these Don’t Print e-mail signatures have caught on in corporate America. \nAt Deloitte and & Touche, up to 1,000 employees have added some sort of version of the line to their e-mail signatures. A 10,000-person international company called Bovis Lend Lease has allowed Don’t Print Pleas to be the only exception to its policy against personalized e-mail signatures. \nI hope the idea continues to expand and becomes even more mainstream. \nThe usual objections do exist. Some don’t like to be told to make changes for environmental reasons and automatically become defensive about being “preached to.” But the idea is not to be condescending, simply to provide a gentle reminder of a small and relatively easy way to make a difference. \nOthers might argue the “I’m just one person” line, claiming that such small measures don’t make a difference. I don’t know about paper consumption, but if every employee in the United Kingdom used one less staple a day that would save 120 tons of steel, which goes to show small steps have big effects.\nSo, think twice before printing, and remind others to do the same; the more people that join in, the bigger the impact.