Reducing paper consumption

Target 8.8: By March 31, 2014, each department will reduce internal paper consumption per office employee by 20%. Each department will establish a baseline between 2005–2006 and 2011–2012, and applicable scope.

The federal government is a significant purchaser and consumer of paper. Almost 7000 t of paper are used to feed government photocopiers, printers and fax machines annually, costing nearly $10 million.

All 27 FSDS departments are subject to this target. As groundwork, 23 (85%) of departments have established a baseline year and reported on their paper-consumption-per-office-employee for that year. A total of 4 departments (15%) reported that they can meet, have already exceeded, or will exceed the 20% reduction target in fiscal year 2012–2013, a year ahead of the established deadline. Within the 20 departments for which data was available, at least 175 t of paper have already been reduced.

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