In today’s world, where everyone is more aware of the potential consequences and effects of climate change than ever before, being eco-friendly is an asset to any business. Consumers are increasingly demanding that the businesses that they give their custom to give some consideration to their environmental obligations. It therefore quite literally pays for the contemporary business owner to seriously think about ways that they can reduce the environmental impact of their business.

Traditionally, offices and other business environments have generated huge quantities of paper waste, the manufacturing sector being no exception, but this does not need to be the case anymore. The arrival of email did a tremendous amount to reduce paper usage, although it took some time to break people out of the habit of printing every email they received. There is still more that can be done, however, as there is now a plethora of apps which are designed to perform various functions useful to businesses which can reduce their paper usage.

Here are some of the everyday sources of paper usage which can be reduced or eliminated by making use of some of the apps that are available.

Take Notes on Your Phone

Business meetings are important. The different departments and components of your manufacturing business and process often operate independently of one another, and yet their performances are inextricably linked. Because of this, it is important that you facilitate communications between the two, and meetings are an effective way of doing this. Recording meetings is a great idea, but there are a number of paperless ways of doing this. You can use a sound recording app to record the meeting and then transcribe it later, or you can transcribe directly onto an app.

You can also make use of apps such as GoCanvas in order to take notes and record the results of more specialized activities such as safety inspections or quality audits.

Take Advantage of Digital Signatures

The ability to digitally sign documents has finally removed one of the final remaining barriers between the average contemporary business and a more paper-free existence. Even as businesses began to move over to email, and therefore reduce their paper usage, they were still needing to print out lengthy legal documents, often for no reason other than to have them signed. There are now apps that will display your contracts to show signatories and allow them to add their own digital signature.

Automatic Data Entry

As the various individuals who comprise your business go about their daily tasks, they will inevitably generate data and other information. This data and information needs to be recorded in some way and then entered somewhere. By taking advantage of app-based solutions you can allow your workers to enter the relevant information and have it automatically formatted and uploaded to the relevant place.

If manufacturing businesses are willing to embrace the opportunities afforded to them by using apps to reduce their paper usage then they will not only be saving money, they will also be boosting their eco credentials and banking the benefits that come from that.