Save the planet ‚ go electronic

The new government rules and regulations that dictate how long companies of all sizes need to keep certain documents are both very good reasons as to why they should convert all their documents to an electronic format. Furthermore, once these documents have been scanned, they can be stored off-site. When these documents are in a digital format, they will be easier to search and easier to retrieve. Besides this, paper makes up a huge part of office waste and this paper inevitably ends up in some landfill, doing more harm than good to the environment.

The growing rules and regulations that govern the retention of records are compelling companies and organisations to store an increasing number of documents, many of which need to be kept for more than ten years.

But let’s face it, storing boxes and boxes of business critical documents in your office takes up valuable space, and can end up being extremely costly, as companies may need to rent additional office space simply for this storage.

Not to mention that offices are often not the most practical place to store documents nor are they the ideal place to ensure that they are well preserved, with problems such as leaking air conditioning and burst geysers resulting in damage far more frequently than most of us appreciate. Finding documents when necessary can also become challenging with this method, and the space taken up could be put to better use as a place for another employee.

A far more cost effective and convenient method of storage is to outsource this function to a company like Metrofile.

Companies like Metrofile specialise in scanning documents to electronic format for easier access and searching.

‚At Metrofile, we are committed to not only giving our customers the very best service in terms of records management, we are also dedicated to reducing carbon footprints and environmental impact,‚ says Peter McLaren-Kennedy, sales and marketing director of Metrofile. ‚In light of this, we use environmentally friendly, bleach free, fully recyclable boxes for document storage, and we provide a recycling service for all of our customers’ documentation.‚

The recycling initiative has been an ongoing process at Metrofile since its acquisition of Rainbow, a company specialising in document recycling. In December alone more than 580 tons of paper was recycled. By region, Metrofile’s recycling for December came in as follows: Cape Town 30.88 tons, Pretoria 17.1 tons, Johannesburg 74 tons, Durban Empangeni 4 tons, Durban Westmead 24 tons and Port Elizabeth 40.22 tons, with external Metrofile partners recycling a total of 398 tons collectively.

‚By offering recycling for our clients we are doing our bit to preserve the environment. Paper makes up a huge proportion of office waste, and contributes dramatically to carbon emissions by taking up huge amounts of landfill space. The figures for our December recycling alone mean we have saved more than 2300 m3 of landfill. If one company can make such a difference, imagine the change South Africa could effect if we all did our bit to save our planet,‚ McLaren-Kennedy concludes.