Going green in information development

At home, I've been trying to reduce my environmental footprint more and more. My town keeps adding more items to the recycling list and now they collect compostable materials. Although ready to say no to trash,  I've reduced my garbage to a not-so-full garbage bag every two weeks. You're probably doing something similar. We switched our bulbs to compact florescent (CFL), and even switched from paper to cloth napkins.

I work as an information developer, and mostly I work on user and administrator guides. That means that I'm producing pages and pages of information. So, how do I reduce the number of pages being printed?

Reducing the amount of printed documentation sent to customers

Last fall, I asked: Are printed manuals a thing of the past? My iPod came with a small instructive brochure in the box, and the rest of the documentation was available online.

 BMC Software customers can  download software, instead of ordering a physical box. But customers have indicated that even when they get a physical kit, they don't need all the printed manuals. Now customers will get electronic copies of documentation, and will only get printed copies on request.

Working online instead of on paper

If you're not an information developer, you might think that all my work is always online. Of course, I do my writing on the computer. But reviews and proof reading used to take place in a mix of paper and online.

Now, almost all work is taking place online. We can do proof reading from the PDFs. I enable commenting in PDFs, so that editors and reviewers can add their comments even from Acrobat Reader. They don't have to print drafts of my guides. And as a bonus, it's easier for me to work from their online comments, because I don't have to decipher handwriting.

What are you doing?

What are you doing to reduce your environmental impact at work? I'd love to hear what else I could be doing.

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