Skip to content

I had to order paper!

Click on image to see full version

Written By: Bryan Monahan, Property Manager (Minneapolis, MN)

Well, I’ve come to the end of an era”¦I had to order paper. Six years ago, when I started with Holladay, I made it a goal in this office to be as paperless as possible, starting with our AR/AP process. And while my quest of reducing the amount of paper we use was met with snickers along the way, I embraced the ”˜Paper Nazi’ title I inherited due to our efforts. It has been six years since I’ve ordered paper (or supplies in general) for the Minneapolis office.

Let’s look at the last six years for a second. When I started, the Minneapolis office budget was around $1,000 per year. In the first year, I reduced the office supplies budget to about $150. Each year, during projections, I further reduced the office supplies budget to about $20, and didn’t spend that! Over the last five years, I’ve bought stamps for the office”¦that’s about it, and have saved about $5,900 in the Minneapolis office/office supplies budget in the last six years!

Let’s look at a few paper/printing related items specifically. In 2015, Holladay purchased the printer that is currently used in Minneapolis and discontinued service for it. In the four years prior, Holladay leased the machine at $300/month.

Service for the machines was an extra expense, and toner replacements weren’t included. Because our office rarely prints, we have not had a service related call on the printer since it was purchased.

  • Printer Toner Cartridge Savings — $46 each X 6 = $276 (Color bundle including Black is$235). Estimated number of cartridges that may have been used over the last six years = 6 (1 per year, and this may be a low estimate)
  • Paper Savings — 5000 pieces of paper (10 reams) per case X 5 years = 25,000 piecesof paper (or about 50 reams of paper) saved in 6 years
  • Paper cost savings — $45 per case X 5 = $225
  • Printer/Scanner/Fax Machine — Lease/service $300/month X 24 months = $7200

Total estimated paper/printing savings for 6 years = ~$7,700!

Now, how many trees is that? Based on the calculations of Conservatree.com:

  • It takes 24 trees to make one ton of uncoated non-recycled printing and office paper.
  • It takes 12 trees to make one ton of 100 percent non-recycled newsprint.
  • It would take a little more than half a tree to make a case (10 reams) of 100 percent, non-recycled 20-lb. copier paper.
  • One tree makes 16.67 reams of copy paper, or 8,333.3 sheets.
  • One ream (500 sheets) uses 6 percent of a tree.
  • One ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper (used for magazines like National Geographic) uses a little more than 15 trees.
  • One ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper (used for news magazines and most catalogs) uses nearly 8 trees.

We’ve saved roughly 2.5 trees in this office alone, not to mention all of the manufacturing costs, Co2, H2O, etc., associated with making paper.

Holladay Properties Mid-South Operations continues to develop practices of paper saving, printer maintenance reduction, and recycling. Please consider this in each office.

Anyway, it’s been a great run — one I’m actually proud of, and one that assists with our green efforts here in Minneapolis. I encourage you to look at the green documents linked below, after the comments section (but please don’t print them!):

Share This Article