Sustainability Metrics for Reduced Paper Consumption

Calculating the Carbon Cost of Office Paper

Office paper is one of the most commonly used materials in many businesses.  Despite ubiquitous use of digital technology, it is still regularly used in office machines, for correspondence, notetaking and other applications. Efforts to reduce, reuse or recycle office paper remain important to sustainability programs. 

Below are two reputable tools that can be used to quantify waste prevention impacts:  

Waste Reduction Model (WARM)

The Waste Reduction Model (WARM) is a tool created by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that is capable of calculating the total GHG emissions, energy savings, and impacts of waste management practices, modelling emissions, energy units, and economic factors. It provides GHG emissions in metric tonnes of CO2 and energy usage in MMBTU. This tool is efficient, data-driven, and is helpful for generating reports on externalities associated with various products.  (It is not currently being updated by EPA due to the Trump administration’s posture on GHG emissions.)

The Paper Calculator

The Paper Calculator, created by the Environmental Paper Network, is specific to paper usage and provides additional metrics, including an input for percentage of recycled content in the paper. Its reports describe end-of-life impacts such as the effect of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on ocean acidification and species threatened. 

How to Find Impact of Using Less Office Paper (WARM)

If using 40 cases of 20 lb paper (1 ton):

Landfilling 40 cases = 1.13 MTCO₂E = 0.47 Million BTU

Source reducing 40 cases = (7.95) MTCO₂E = (36.60) Million BTU

If using 4,000 cases of 20 lb paper (100 tons): 

Landfilling 4,000 cases = 113.00 MTCO₂E = 47.0 Million BTU

Source reducing 4,000 cases = (795.00) MTCO₂E = (3,660.00) Million BTU

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How To Find Impact of Purchasing Office Paper with Higher Percentage of Recycled Content (Paper Calculator)

If using 40 cases of 20 lb paper (1 ton):

	0% Recycled	80% Recycled
Wood Use	3.99 Tons	0.798 Tons
Total Energy	25.5 million BTUs	17.4 million BTUs
GHG	14,000 pounds CO2	7,590 pounds CO2
Water Usage	21,400 gallons	19,900 gallons
Solid Waste	1,110 pounds	1,050 pounds

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How To Find Impact of Recycling Office Paper

If using 40 cases of 20 lb paper (1 ton):

Landfilling 40 cases = 1.13 MTCO₂E = 0.47 Million BTU

Recycling 40 cases = (2.86) MTCO₂E = (10.08) Million BTU

If using 4,000 cases of 20 lb paper (100 tons): 

Landfilling 4,000 cases = 100.13 MTCO₂E = 47.0 Million BTU  

Recycling 4,000 cases = (286.00) MTCO₂E = (1,008.00) Million BTU

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