Kodak Working towards a Paperless Office

Print News: Kodak Working with D&H for Paperless Office


Yesterday Kodak announced an agreement with US firm D&H Distribution to help businesses reduce paper waste, through the distribution of Kodak’s line of scanners. D&H – which has connections with retailers including Amazon.com – plans to employ its relations with small-to-medium companies to encourage document scanning. The agreement will target businesses ‘looking to reduce their paper workflows and increase digital capabilities,’ and will, if successful, have significant environmental boons on top of increasing paper efficiency.

Kodak – an important player in the printer manufacturing industry – is one of several firms this year to encourage the so-called ‘paperless office’. In May, Calum Russell of Abobe.com.au posted that the average office worker uses ten thousands sheets of paper a year, at a cost of 1.6 million tonnes in writing materials. Meanwhile, in June IBM.com announced an initiative to consult with businesses in reducing paper waste. They aim to ‘reduce costs’ by digitising documents.

However, unlike Kodak, not everyone in the printing industry is seeking paper’s redundancy. On 30th April 2008, Datamation.com reported on Xerox’s invention of ‘reusable paper.’ This is not recycled paper, but in fact a sheet that makes document scanning redundant, because after 24 hours the words on the sheet disappear. The invention is still being tested at Xerox’s Palto Alco Research Center but, if successful, could reconcile the ‘tree-friendly office’ to the advantages of paper. It also holds the promise a whole new industry in ink cartridges.