By Adam Taylor
Now more than ever, the world is becoming increasingly fast-paced, interconnected, and environmentally conscious. As the professional landscape continues to grow more complex, tried-and-true organizational methods are becoming obsolete. Going paperless can help an organization keep up with the competition in this constantly shifting business environment, while also benefiting the actual environment. This might seem like a complicated change, but it doesn’t have to be. With these tips, you can take your business paperless and do your part to make a difference.

What Are the Advantages?
When converting data and documentation to a digital system, the advantages are worth the effort. General office supplies such as paper and toner need to be purchased less frequently and in smaller quantities. Bulky equipment such as faxes and printers become less of a necessity. The cost of waste and recycling management is also reduced.
This makes room not only in the literal office space but in the budget. Studies show that reproducing and distributing a single-page file costs a company $180 on average. Also worth considering is the boost a company’s reputation can gain from a “going green” initiative. Modern consumers appreciate an environmentally friendly organization, and one of the most common and comprehensive ways to achieve that image is by going paperless.

How Can Employees Benefit?
With such a large undertaking, it’s important to have the support of the entire workforce while making the switch. Fortunately, a paperless initiative benefits much more than the company’s bottom line. Employees can communicate more effectively, and a lack of handwritten information reduces the chances of human error. Information is both more secure and more widely accessible when backed up digitally. Workers do not need to track down a physical document or for that matter even be on-site to access it. These advantages can assure the team’s desire to buy into the concept of a paperless office.
Is Going Paperless Safer?
The security benefits of going paperless are twofold. Documents are far more secure behind digital login credentials than filed away physically. Besides preventing unauthorized access or tampering, digitizing documents also protects them from loss and damage. When information is backed up to the network, it’s out of the path of any on-site catastrophes.
Where Do We Start?
When going paperless, it can be a challenge to know where to begin. Existing documents should be digitized wherever possible and meticulously filed away if not. On the employee side, everything from payroll to health benefits can be converted. Many companies utilize direct deposit now, but some still provide paper paystubs by mail when an email would suffice. There are also apps employees can use to track data such as hours worked and insurance information.

How Do We Continue?
With existing documents organized and digitized where possible, how does the company move forward? Luckily there is an ever-growing variety of tools, software, and strategies to streamline the switch. Premade templates for anything from paystubs to memos are widely available.
Rather than rely on paper forms of marketing, switching to digital marketing and social media marketing can save on paper and costs. This is where social media can be a godsend. In the past, businesses would have to rely on expensive print ads and direct mail campaigns to reach their target audience. However, with the advent of social media marketing, companies can now reach a much wider audience at a fraction of the cost.
Online ads, for example, allow businesses to target specific demographics with laser precision. This means that businesses can save a significant amount of money on paper and postage costs. In addition, social media marketing is highly effective in building brand awareness and generating leads. As a result, it is an extremely cost-effective way to market any business. Plus, the process to design an online ad is simplified when you rely on templates that allow you to fully customize your ads to fit your needs. Look for free tools to make this a quick and easy task.
How Does Going Paperless Help in the Long Run?
While it may at first seem like a massive undertaking, going paperless is becoming a necessity for modern business. The improvements to productivity, efficiency, budget, and the environment will continue long after the initial effort is spent. All aspects of life are becoming increasingly digitized. The sooner companies convert, the better they’ll be able to compete in this ever-changing landscape. So revisit your methods for storing documents, switch to direct deposit, and turn to social media marketing to save money and make inroads for the environment.

Image via Pexels

8 Ways to Relieve Stress From Climate Change

by Cheryl Conklin

The concern over climate change has increased significantly recently. If you’re feeling stressed about the future of the planet, worry not — there are plenty of things you can do to take care of the planet and relieve your stress levels at the same time. Here are eight ways to relieve your stress from climate change today, presented below by Forest Unlimited

1. Use Public Transportation

Using public transportation is a more eco-friendly way of getting around. Not only does it get you where you need to go without releasing excess emissions into the atmosphere, but it also reduces your carbon footprint. Plus, there’s no need for you to waste money on gas. As an added bonus, it’s safer!

2. Take a Staycation

You probably have a stack of vacation days that you haven’t used. Instead of blowing your money on a trip, take a vacation close to home. Getting away from it all doesn’t always mean booking an expensive, gas-guzzling flight. It could be as simple as visiting a park or curling up with a good book. There are plenty of ways you can recharge and refresh without leaving town.

3. Make More Use of Friends

Friends can help you in your carbon-cutting efforts, especially if they live near you. Living close by makes it easy for friends to carpool or bike together to work and school. Creating a group of environmentally conscious friends committed to a low-carbon lifestyle will strengthen your resolve, provide fun socializing opportunities, and motivate each other toward environmental goals. You can also use social media to promote your healthy lifestyle.

4. Reduce Meat Consumption

While scientists aren’t exactly sure how much meat is too much, it’s clear that the consumption of red meat (beef, pork, and lamb) has a big impact on health and climate. The livestock industry generates massive emissions — 14.5% of all greenhouse gases emitted today.

5. Reduce Energy Use at Home

One of your most important contributions to fighting climate change starts at home. By making simple changes such as replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs and turning off lights and appliances when you leave a room — you can substantially reduce your energy use.

6. Reduce Your Company’s Carbon Footprint

If you’re not using renewable energy sources, a carbon calculator can help your business determine how much greenhouse gas you produce and determine your carbon footprint. Then create a timeline of how you’ll become more environmentally conscious and achieve sustainability goals through product mapping.

One way to reduce your business’s carbon footprint is to create an efficient invoicing process. You can make clear, easy-to-read custom invoices using an online invoice generator. You can quickly create great-looking invoices with custom colors, graphics, and text in minutes. Then you can download them to use as you like.

7. Relieving Anxiety

First, try to stay informed without worrying too much. While there’s a lot of talk about climate change, there’s still time to reduce carbon footprints and lessen the impact. Second, try creating a plan of action. If you’re still feeling anxious, try meditating or practicing yoga. Apps like Headspace offer guided meditation that’s accessible and easy to do anywhere. The practice can help improve your mood and lower your anxiety. Get out into the forest for a hike or visit the Ocean or a lake. Exercise and spending time in beautiful green environments are proven ways to relieve anxiety.

8. Start an Eco-Friendly Business

A great place to direct your personal energy is by starting an eco-friendly business that can both raise awareness and protect the environment. You can create an S Corp in California, which is either an LLC or corporation, for your business with the help of a formation company. An S Corp can help you save money on self-employment taxes to be able to do more good work.

Ease Your Stress

With climate change, you may feel helpless and overwhelmed. But there are things you can do to ease your stress and combat global warming. For more ways to help, check out Forest Unlimited today!

Kimberly Burr

The County of Sonoma has long carried on its books a permissive policy that paves the way for developers broadly speaking to cut down trees – in small and in large numbers.
 
With the support, however of the three female County Supervisors – Zane, Gorin, and Hopkins, Forest Unlimited and its supporters have just achieved an important step towards properly valuing and protecting trees. The Update of the Tree Ordinance is now on the County’s Two Year Work Plan.
 
THE PROBLEM
As reported earlier, locally between 2007-13 approximately 950 – acres of Sonoma County were converted from woodlands to non woodlands. And there is no end in sight as new tree removal proposals are submitted virtually every week.  Where cool breezes once emanated and where water was efficiently created, cleaned, and stored, there are now hot exposed soils, re-contoured hills that drive polluted water off the land into ditches and streams carrying dust, spray, fertilizers (sometimes called “nutrients”) into water bodies during the winter and feeding algae in the summer. As to whether there are more trees now that the climate has warmed up, the facts in Sonoma County are that the trees are still coming down at alarming rates.
  
Good rules on canopy cover are needed now to protect and enhance – as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends for trees and woodlands. (9.5 million km2 increase in forests by 2050 relative to 2010. (IPCC Summary for Policy Makers). Reforestation and afforestation are needed to take carbon out of atmosphere quickly.

True Measure of a Sustainable County
Sustaining natural systems through clear policy is the true measure of a sustainable county. We know from history that societies as a whole have sometimes failed to recognize and to implement changes when environmental destruction was occurring. Many societies over-extended, exhausted their resources, and starved to death. We know this challenge. It is not new. Today, science and reason empower good policy even in the face of entrenched interests. Hopefully those that benefit from tree removals will not stand in the way of rational measures needed to minimize our highly destructive development patterns especially relative to our trees and watersheds. Better yet, perhaps the industries will lead and drive positive change in the expedited manner that is necessary. Who will it be?

The informed public has the most vital position to play on the team and must not abandon the field. In order to prevent more damage to important canopy cover, we must demand timely action for effective positive protections.

As science tells us, the momentum now is toward rapid extinction. We have very little time to improve our practices and prevent even more tragic fires, droughts, biological declines, and disasters. We all must do as much as we can each day to turn the tide. Some folks are in a position to do more than others…namely politicians and industry leaders. We are confident that the vast majority of folks see the good sense in protecting mature trees especially in the 21st Century.
 
We know Sonoma County business leaders, agriculture, and people are capable of leading an advertising campaign, and we urge them to put at least that much time and talent towards educating the public and our representatives about the immediate challenges with which are faced like preserving the County’s tree canopy. It not only absorbs the green house gas carbon dioxide but protects us from direct solar heat.

How Do We Achieve Success?
We will only get one chance at this.  We need to re-evaluate the true costs of tree removal to the community.  What is an adequate mitigation for the destruction of a 200 year old oak or oak woodland? Do a few baby ornamental trees installed to take the place of the mature trees that once touched the sky, recharged the ground water, cooled the air, and absorbed vast amounts of green house gases do the best job in the short time we have left? Or do we protect the vast majority of the trees we have and plant even more? Do we continue to give free passes to large landowners to do whatever they think is best for them at the expense of the watersheds and climate we all rely upon? What timeline is relevant today? What trade-offs does science say make the most sense?  What values should be attributed to trees and woodlands?
 
We must ask the question of ourselves, can we fulfill our dreams of success, richness, security, and happiness without large scale destruction of woodlands, forests, and mature trees? We need practical minds that will contribute practical and effective measures. Economic arguments are powerful and innately trigger certain responses, however unless economies works with nature, as we now know, we will fall far short of the actions needed. We need to grapple with whether all development is good development and if some development is exempted from common sense rules what effect does that have on our goals to restore, protect, and enhance our tree canopy?
 
We recognize, like many civilizations before us could not, that our area is rich in more ways than one. The question remains if whether our big brains and our collective will to survive is up to the task of using reason, cooperation, and problem solving, to stop the tragic destruction of our County’s important forests and woodlands.