Managers fail to go green with documents

Just 34 per cent of businesses have set environmental targets around document governance, research from Ricoh finds

Only 34 per cent of senior managers may be setting solid targets for environmentally friendly document management, and the UK and Ireland may be worse, Ricoh has claimed.

According to the print vendor’s research, UK and Irish business leaders are neither setting targets for going green nor auditing environmental aspects around document governance, such as energy efficiency or recycling.

Tim Taylor, environment and compliance manager at Ricoh, said there remained a lack of awareness of the role document governance could play in driving environmental and business efficiencies.

“Businesses need to act now to improve the way they are managing and controlling their document workflows,” he said.

Ricoh hired Coleman Parkes to interview 311 senior decision-makers at businesses across six European nations, the UK and Ireland in July and August. The resultant whitepaper suggests that only 34 per cent set environmental targets around document governance. Just 18 per cent have a duplex-printing policy.

A league table drawn up from the results puts France at the top — achieving 43.5 per cent of what is possible — and the UK and Ireland last, doing 38.5 per cent of what is possible, the Ricoh figures revealed.