While all businesses still have the goal of making a profit, it is no longer the sole goal. Businesses today need to do more in order to succeed and gain new customers. In particular, businesses today almost always have a social responsibility in mind. A big part of this social responsibility is to be eco-friendly.
There are many good reasons to be environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, many business practices used at many companies are quite wasteful, including faxing. Faxing uses a lot of paper, a lot of power and creates a lot of waste.
Thankfully, it is now possible to fax without any of those aforementioned issues. Now, you might be wondering how to fax without a fax machine, and the answer is by using online faxing. With that in mind, this article is going to go over how online faxing can help your small business be more eco-friendly.
The Importance of Having an Eco-Friendly Company
Before looking at how online faxing can make your company more eco-friendly, we need to look a little more closely at why this matters for small businesses. Firstly, a large majority of people want to take steps to live more sustainably.
These individuals who are living sustainably and being eco-friendly likely want to support businesses that do the same. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to immediately go paperless and reduce all waste, but you should be making an effort to improve where you can.
There may also be laws in your area about how much waste you can produce, how you dispose of it, and other things like that. If your policies go against these rules and regulations, you could find yourself being harshly penalized.
In addition to making your customers happy and abiding by any rules in your area, being environmentally-friendly is simply a good thing to do. You are helping to preserve the environment for future generations.
Ways That Online Faxing Can Help Your Company Be Eco-Friendly
Wasting less paper, ink, and toner
Perhaps the biggest way that online faxing helps with being eco-friendly is by reducing waste. A traditional fax printer uses a ton of ink, paper, and toner, all of which will eventually get thrown away and sent to a landfill. Many companies throw away tons and tons of this type of waste every single year.
Online faxing can be done from any smartphone, computer or tablet, and is infinitely scalable in many cases. Also, unlike a traditional fax machine that will print every fax you get, with online faxing you can choose which faxes actually need to be printed, and which can simply be saved online. This can greatly reduce your waste, while also helping your company be more efficient. You will even save money by having to buy less of the aforementioned office supplies.
Encourages Remote Work
Maintaining a physical office space can, unfortunately, be quite environmentally unfriendly. A lot of power is used to keep computers, lights and other machines running all day. Keeping them warm or cool with a furnace or A/C respectively also uses a fair bit of energy.
Not only that, but employees emit a ton of pollution by driving to work and home each and every day. A great solution to boost your environmental friendliness is to allow some or all of your workers to work remotely.
Utilizing online faxing is perfect for the remote workforce as it allows them to continue to fax as normal, without having to be tethered to the office fax machine. People can work from home, from the coffee shop or even in the park, and still be able to send and receive the faxes they need. Remote work can often boost productivity, efficiency, and the mood of your employees, as well. If online faxing is in place, it helps you get a few steps closer to downsizing or doing away with your physical office altogether.
Uses Fewer Resources
Online faxing also uses much fewer resources than a standard fax machine. Physical fax machines are often left on all day, where they can use a considerable amount of power. This is especially true if you have more than one machine and are sending and receiving a lot of faxes. Because online faxing doesn’t require the use of a specific machine (only your phone, tablet, or computer), it will utilize a lot less power.
Also, online faxing solutions also allow you to send out the same document to multiple different recipients at once. In the past, you would have to send each one individually, and wait for it to send successfully before moving to the next. This could end up being a very tedious and annoying issue.
In conclusion, having an eco-friendly company is incredibly important, and using online faxing can be a great tool to help achieve that goal. Whether you want to reduce waste, encourage remote work, or use fewer resources, considering online faxing is a good idea.