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Prioritize use of e-documents over printed documents

PRINTER AND FACSIMILE AND PHOTOCOPIER SUPPLIES

Segment    Family    Class

44

10

31

SDG Alignment

9. Build Resilient Infrastructure, Promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization and Foster Innovation

SDG Target

9.4

Target Description

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities

Level of Effort

Level of Effort Scale

1

1 -Quick Wins: solution involves adding criteria for the good or service being purchased (ex: certifications), minimal internal process changes.

2 -Long Term Adoption: solution requires some changes to internal processes and/or more capital investment (ex: digital transformation to reduce paper use).

3 – Disruptive Opportunities: requires significant investment and changes to internal processes (ex: retrofitting building)

Category Assessment

ETCH Procurement Process .png

Assessment

• Consider this option if your company prints a significant portion of documents during internal evaluation or for filing purposes.

• Evaluate the current print spend to understand the percentage of physical print converted to e-documents - obtain printer usage statistics from IT.

• Evaluate your IT Infrastructure to understand the software requirements for cloud-based or premise-based document storage options and their compliance requirements.

Opportunity Identification 

Business:
Cost savings from reduced print spend related materials and improved efficiency by expediting information transfer using e-documents.

Sustainability:
Reduced paper consumption and waste ( i.e. chemical waste)
and the energy consumption by printers, which thereby reduces emissions.

Strategy Build & Execution

• Based on the assessment, strategize if the complete shift to e-documents is a viable option for your company's internal processes or would be better suited in installment steps.

• Align with your stakeholders, especially IT, Corporate Administration (Document management), and any other departments as deemed necessary.

• Structure a go-to-market and replacement strategy for existing printers.

Supplier Negotiation & Contract

• Negotiate with suppliers who you've purchased printers from on value-added elements such as disposal of printers, document conversion (if applicable), tracking end-of-life printer waste emissions.

Supplier Performance & Management

• Compare the performance of internal processes after the adoption of the e-document initiative with the earlier method.

• Use established supplier performance measures to track the reduction of paper usage by amount purchased as well as cost comparison of implementing efficient printer disposal, retrieve reusable parts from disposed of products, and software uptime

Resource Links

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