e 
Reducing waste
According to a study by Lexmark, the average UK worker prints 38 pages a day, with around 29% of these wasteful.
With a template, less paper and ink are wasted when creating documents as users don’t have to experiment to get the document to look right.
By creating templates with logos and addresses on - which can be attached to and sent via email, then read on screen - there is less reason to print documents out.
Templates can be ‘printed’ straight to PDF – saving paper, ink and money. After all, printing ink is one of the most expensive liquids in the world - litre for litre, it costs more than vintage champagne.
Why save paper?
One tonne of paper requires 98 tonnes of various resources and uses at least 30,000 litres of water.
When paper is bleached using chlorine, significant quantities of harmful dioxins are released into the environment.
Of course, recycling and using recycled paper helps, but it would still be better to remove the need for paper in the first place.
Clean screen vs. dirty printing
Unfortunately, the printing industry is one of the most polluting industries in the UK. It uses significant amounts of energy, consumes and potentially pollutes water, produces waste and also high levels of emissions from alcohol-based damping solutions that add to global warming.
So anything you can do to reduce the amount of printing required will contribute towards the environment.
For small runs, letterhead templates with logos and addresses can be printed onto plain paper using a desktop printer, saving the additional environmental costs of four colour printing, machine washing, packing and delivery etc.
Or you could go further and only produce screen documents - as far as is possible.
Email can replace faxes, and written memos - quotes, orders, invoices and statements can be sent as PDFs - websites, newsletters, RSS newsfeeds and blogs can replace marketing material and brochures.
Always consider the environment before printing a document.
Templates to the rescue?
Templates can help by making it easy to create documents that can be read on screen or turned into a PDF.
Questions on designing documents for screen reading?
If you would like advice on creating documents to be read on screen, or would like more information about PDFs or the environmental issues of printing – please get in touch – we’d be happy to help.
telephone: 07860 267155
or email: enquiry@knightstemplate.co.uk