Eco-Friendliness in Unexpected Places: Google Documents

This is the first post in my series entitled "Eco-friendliness in Unexpected Places." My intention is to highlight tools that contribute to a green lifestyle, but may not be marketed as such.

About five years ago I was employed at a security company that aggressively pushed for a paperless work environment. The practice left an impression on me and now I've adopted that philosophy in my own life and since that time have been working to eliminate the unnecessary use of paper.

I've used Google Documents for over a year now and have noticed a decline in my paper consumption (the environmental impact of our HIGH levels of paper consumption is a tad frightening).

I also have the task of finding a document sharing application to be used by the employees at my job. I'm hoping to implement Google Documents in the workplace to eliminate unnecessary printing of documents. Google Docs allows you to upload various files, including: HTML and plain text documents; Microsoft Word docs; PowerPoint presentations; spreadsheets and PDF files. You can then easily and securely share documents with others and utilize their multi-user editing feature.

Let's eliminate the need to print EVERYTHING, especially when the printed material is likely to be discarded upon reading. When you do print, remember to adjust the margins accordingly to help reduce paper consumption.