Paper Trail of Destruction: The Hidden Cost of Printing O&Ms

4,500. This is the number of individual pieces of paper we believe the average O&M hardcopy uses. But the average project requires two hard copies, so that’s 9,000 pieces of paper. Nine thousand. Astonishing.

Printing and delivering 2 hard copies of as-built building information for 295,333 projects in the UK requires:

1. 2,657,997,000 sheets of paper
2. 1,063,199 litres of ink
3. 295,333,000 watt-hours of energy to print them
4. 885,999 gallons of fuel to deliver them

When combined, printing the UK’s ￡1m+ O&M manuals generates approximately 456,176,318 kilograms of CO2e emissions, and results in the deforestation of approximately 265,800 trees, every single year.

This practice not only has a devastating impact on our environment but also represents a significant waste of resources.

In this article, Scott explores the real cost and environmental impact of printing O&M manuals.

Click here to read more.