In this day and age nearly everything we read and communicate is through the computer.   And I don’t know about you, but it is killing my eyes!

So I, like many others, occasionally print out the unnecessary email or article, and glance at it with every intention to return to it later. Ultimately it gets filed into the pile of other papers covering my desk, and chucked into the recycling bin at the next big clean. 

I began working recently with Tomorrow’s Company and noticed the ever increasing green tag lines on many corporate and private emails sent to the office. I had not encountered this before as most of my email correspondence is not with the business world, so I was surprised and a little bemused about the whole thing. 

Initially seeing these taglines with messages such as ‘Save trees, don’t print this email’ made me stop and think a moment, and I actually did not print out some things I would have otherwise. But, upon some further investigation I was surprised to find much debate surrounding the topic. There are feelings of admiration alongside those of downright anger at the taglines, accusing them of being corporate green-wash, as well as bossy ‘holier than thou’ statements. 

I suddenly saw the other side. How dare someone tell me what I can and cannot print?! How do I know they don’t print out everything!   And then with a wisp of humiliation I realised that my being put off was merely because I was embarrassed about preaching sustainability, while having a growing pile of papers next to me.   

At the end of the day, green taglines are just a suggestion, not an order. No one is standing over your shoulder to make sure you don’t print out that email. The anger stems from inside. 

And yes, I am aware of the argument that the extra tagline sometimes means that if you do print the email more sheets of paper will be used. But why not go into the printer settings and print one page only? Are we really that lazy and lacking in creativity? Or just game for an argument?

So, to add to the debate, Tomorrow’s Company has now added the tagline ‘help us be sustainable…print only if needed!’ to our emails. It’s slightly less bossy than others I have come across, but still a call to action. Hopefully it will inspire less printing, and if not, at least will plant a seed of thought and discussion about the matter.

Businesses have the great responsibility of having power to influence, so why not influence in positive ways? True, there are many cases of green-wash in the corporate and business world, but many also genuinely care about issues surrounding sustainability. Printing unnecessary sheets of paper is only a fraction of the issue, but still one to be considered.

After all is said and done I am sure that there will be days when I have to print something for the sake of my eyes. But for the sake of the trees, I will definitely think before I do so and promise not to print unless it is really needed!