As the paperless office starts to become a reality, businesses can look forward to helping the environment in addition to saving money.

The idea of the paperless office is several decades old at this point; the first prediction that computers would end the use of paper was first put forth in a 1975 Business Week article, according to the FedEx web site. But despite the proliferation of computers, most of us have tenaciously held onto the use of paper.

With document management technology becoming more advanced and the rise of fax-over-IP (FoIP), however, we’re finally making headway on that dream.

FoIP delivers many valuable features for businesses, such as reduced cost and advanced document forwarding and management. But another benefit of FoIP is environmental friendliness.

"For many, being environmentally aware and conscious is a heartfelt and proactive effort, but for businesses, saving the environment is often not quite as much a priority as saving money," admitted TMCnet’s Steve Anderson in a blog post.

But even if that is the case, being green doesn’t hurt.

FoIP contributes to a greener world by allowing faxes to be sent to email inboxes and fax servers so that companies use less paper and ink.

A second environmental benefit of FoIP is that it cuts down on the need for workers to be in a shared office, which reduces the emissions from transportation. FoIP enables a mobile workforce, as documents can be sent directly to email rather than sitting in a tray waiting for a worker to return to the office.

For FedEx, the environmental benefits of going paperless have been profound.

“The paper manufacturing process itself creates greenhouse gases and uses a lot of energy,” noted FedEx on its web site. “Over 4.6 million tons of copy paper were shipped in the US in 2000. Producing, using and disposing of this much copy paper consumes enough wood to build one million average US homes, a day’s worth of water flowing through Niagara Falls, and more energy than that used by all the households in Los Angeles each year; while generating over 5.2 million tons of solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the tailpipe emission of over two million cars.”

FedEx has not gone 100 percent paperless yet, but it has stopped using paper at its call centers.

“The average sized call center goes through 3 cases of paper per month,” the company noted. “This equals approximately 15,000 sheets of paper. One tree yields 8,333 sheets of paper. In a year, going paperless reduces the number of trees needing to be harvested by 21 per call center.”

Bravo, FedEx, and here’s hoping that more businesses leverage FoIP and document management to keep the world green and healthy.