By Sanaullah Ataullah
DOHA: Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) has received good response from local companies for its ongoing campaign to reduce the use of paper in offices.
The council provided training to 150 company staff to rationalise paper consumption at their premises. The number of participants registered at the council grew from 20 at the beginning of the drive to 55 this year. They are from consultancy firms, hotels, schools, government organisations and construction companies, among others
Details were given by Meshal Al Shamari, Director, QGBC, at an event yesterday to mark the achievements of this year’s ‘No Paper Day Qatar’ campaign. The day was observed by QGBC on April 7 with a call to companies and the public to conserve paper.
The event was attended by representatives of participating companies, who shared experiences to push the drive ahead. Many companies who marked the day were honoured by the council.
“We are continuing a nation-wide campaign through channels, including social media, to make Qatar paper-efficient, said Al Meshal.
“The campaign was launched three years ago whereby it was noted that five million paper sheets were used a day in Qatar. When we calculated, it was some 2bn sheets a year. It was too much so we thought to create awareness among people and companies to reduce paper use.”
Participants are asked to stop printing rough draft, use both sides of the paper and reuse papers as much as possible, among other efficient ways to rationalise use.
Paper conservation in offices will not only help protect the environment but also boost administrative operations, said Al Meshal.
“We usually print 2,500 papers for our official works, including invoices and communications. But on April 7, we managed to slash at few hundred printed papers responding to the paper conservation day,” said Kuruvila Manipadam, a representative of Movenpick Doha hotel.
“Our General Manager Ghada Sadet is very strict with regard to paper waste and leads the conservation drive in the office. We are asked to convince customers to take invoices through email. We are also educating our clients about the drive. Most of them happily agreed to support us. “We have joined the drive since the beginning. Paper consumption has decreased at least by five percent in our hotel, thanks to the drive. We targeted 20 percent. It is not easy but I am sure we will achieve gradually,” he added.
“We stopped printing rough drafts for communications and began printing on both sides of the sheet,” said Salman, a representative of SNC-Lavalin ProFac Gulf Management which operates Msheireb projects.
“We need to print a large number of papers daily. Following the campaign, we have become some seven percent efficient and are doing hard to further cut paper use.”The Peninsula
