How to Celebrate Ear Day Year-Round by Jim Merrifield

Celebrated every year on April 22, Earth Day encourages us to pause and think about how we can better support the environment and live more sustainably. But the lessons we learn when we explore how to celebrate Earth Day can be acted upon every day, not just on the day itself. The following are three ways your organization can make an environmental difference through records management every day:

Send Your Documents Offsite

The first way organizations can better support the environment is by sending their documents offsite. With the rising cost of onsite storage space, now is the perfect time to send less-active documents to a lower-cost facility, such as an offsite storage center. However, in keeping with the theme of sustainability, be sure to responsibly dispose of copies before you send your documents to storage.

Refine Your Document Capture Process

The second way organizations wondering how to celebrate Earth Day can make the most of the occasion is by refining their document capture process. Too often, organizations implement new software without first refining its document capture process. Organizations all over the world are undoubtedly moving toward a paper-lite environment. However, scanning everything can be very costly and is definitely not recommended. After all, a high percentage of information is created electronically and is only translated into paper form when the print button is hit. Start by communicating to end users that they are encouraged to save their documents electronically instead of printing them.

Schedule a Shred Day for Your Company

Organizations can also be proactive about environmental protection by scheduling a company-wide shred day. If your organization already contracts with an offsite storage company, contact it and discuss how to best schedule a shred day. By doing so, you will make it clear to your organization that documents must be disposed of properly using a shredding service, not by just tossing documents in the garbage.

Earth Day is a great way to get your staff members to think about how they manage their records and the environmental benefits of having a solid, sustainable records management program in place and following through on it year-round.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2015/other/how-to-celebrate-earth-day-ye...
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