Document Management News

The UK is the worst performing country in western Europe when it comes to sustainable document production and management, although no countries are doing very well, shows research commissioned by Ricoh.

Ricoh says Europe’s business leaders are unnecessarily missing opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and drive efficiencies through document governance.

The research finds that only a minority of European businesses are setting targets and auditing the environmental aspects of their document production, which includes energy efficiency and recycling.

While 67% of senior managers set cost targets for document governance, just 41% set environmental targets. As a result, ongoing sustainability improvements will be challenging for many businesses due to the absence of consistent measurement and auditing processes, said Ricoh.

The research also finds that most organisations are adopting a decentralised approach to document governance, with just 39% having implemented a strategy across their business.

Key survey results:

• 32% of business leaders say their employees do what they like when it comes to duplex printing (printing on both sides of the paper), and just 18% have implemented a company-wide policy on duplex printing.
• Almost half (47%) of business leaders are unfamiliar with their company’s recycling policy, and 40% are unfamiliar with their toner recycling policy.
• When asked whether employees consider environmental benefits when printing, respondents scored their employees at just 5.5 using a scale of one (do not care at all) to 10 (care a lot)

Key to addressing these issues is a centralised document governance strategy, said Ricoh, which delivers insight across the whole organisation and provides factual data upon which progress and savings are monitored, and new areas for improvement are set.

When comparing activity across Europe, there are significant differences between countries in terms of their adoption of sustainable document governance. French companies are the leaders in Europe while UK ones come last.

However, none of the countries measured achieved an environmental score of over 50% based on the parameters set by Ricoh. Despite being ahead of the rest, the average French score was still only 43.5%. The document governance parameters included recycling, setting targets, auditing, recycling and employee behaviours.

The seven countries tracked in order:

1. France
2. Italy
3. Germany
4. Netherlands
5. Belgium
6. Spain
7. United Kingdom

Tom Wagland, of the environmental management group at Ricoh Europe, said, “Despite sustainability being an important fixture on the business agenda there remains a lack of awareness of the role that document governance can play in driving both environmental and business efficiencies. Businesses need to act now by taking some simple steps to improve the way they are managing and controlling their document workflows.”

The Ricoh Document Strategy Index was conducted on behalf of Ricoh Europe by research firm Coleman Parkes, and was based on 311 detailed interviews with senior decision makers at medium- to large-sized companies across Western Europe. All respondents were  responsible for document management within their organisations.

More on the research