News
Document management systems play key role in reducing IT energy use
12 August 2008
Following the publication of the Government’s green IT strategy, Greening Government ICT
[1], which aims to make public sector IT carbon
neutral by 2012, Lynne Munns, General Manager of Version One, has stressed
the important role document management systems must play in meeting
Government’s green IT targets.
The strategy recently published by the Minister
for Transformational Government Tom Watson highlights key areas public
sector departments need to address to achieve carbon neutrality by 2012.
These include cutting the number of printers across the organisation and
reducing the amount being printed. The plan holds chief information
officers and finance directors responsible for achieving Government’s ICT targets, with
finance directors being tasked with ensuring that the
environmental consequences of ICT procurements are fully evaluated.
Lynne Munns, General Manager of document management and imaging
company Version One, says, “If public sector bodies are to cut the
number of printers across their organisations and reduce printing, they
need to invest in document management systems. These systems are crucial
to achieving carbon neutrality by 2012 as they replace the printing-out,
postage and manual filing of documents with electronic processes for
document creation, delivery, management and storage.”
By moving to electronic document management systems, organisations
reduce paper-use and significantly cut CO2 emissions as carbon is no
longer emitted during the manufacture of toner cartridges, during the
printing process, whilst photocopying paper and whilst transporting
paperwork.
Munns continues, “As each printer typically emits 456 kgs of carbon
dioxide each year and each tree typically absorbs 13kg of CO2 per year,
an incredible 35 trees need to be saved from destruction every year to
offset just one office printer’s emissions. When it’s also considered
that every financial document arriving into an organisation is typically
photocopied at least once and an invoice can be photocopied up to eleven
times, this creates a powerful case for implementing paperless
processes.”
Reference
1. See bjhc&im story: Government plans to make
its IT systems carbon neutral
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