Adobe developed the Portable Document Format (PDF) in 1993 as a way to easily create, exchange, and present visually rich documents, regardless of the device used. The invention was one of the biggest steps toward the “paperless office,” perhaps second to computers.
Digital technologies can make a workplace more efficient, collaborative and environmentally friendly.
Paperless Productivity
There’s greater focus on sustainability as companies evaluate their environmental impact, especially in the hybrid world of work. An Adobe study of U.S. workers found that 57 percent believe paper consumption is the biggest contributor to their employer’s environmental impact.
PDF has been around for 30 years, so you’d think that most organizations have already sunset their paperless offices. Adobe Future of Digital Work Study shows that almost one-third of technology leaders claim that they still use paper for about 50% of their work.
Cloud-based technology can reduce or eliminate paper documents, and also other resource-intensive tasks. Cloud-based tools allow a salesperson to close a sale without printing out a contract or presentation, driving in a rental vehicle, or even getting on a flight. This is something I witness every day in our customers. Adobe Acrobat is used to securely convert and save slides in PDF format. They can then easily track and email them. Adobe Acrobat is used to exchange contracts. This allows both parties involved in the transaction to collaborate and make changes and comments.
Acrobat Sign is used by our customers after they have agreed on terms to sign and share contracts, as well as store important documents in their records system. Additionally, with the Acrobat Sign integration with Microsoft Power Automate, our customers’ sales teams can automate the entire workflow using a simple drag-and-drop system to set up automated and customized e-signature workflows for their contract—no coding experience required.
This example also demonstrates how digital documents and e-signatures can significantly increase sustainability—and productivity—by removing paper from the equation. PUMA, a footwear brand with 1,200 employees at its headquarters, handles 500 contracting processes each year. PUMA, realizing how much paper was being used for contract management, adopted Adobe Acrobat Sign in order to create a more sustainable process. It reduced the time it took to process contracts from days to a few hours on average and saved thousands sheets of paper and CO2 emissions.
Sustainability at Scale
It can be intimidating to undertake sustainability initiatives, due to their size, scope, and cost. According to our research, 1 in 5 employees thinks their company will spend over a million dollars for sustainability initiatives within the next five years.
Paper-to-digital conversion can assist companies in scaling up their sustainability efforts. Acrobat documents can be created, shared, signed, and stored to reduce the environmental impact of paper-based processing by 95%. Adobe Acrobat document solutions and eSignatures transform 30 billion paper documents per year into digital workflows. This saves 2.7 billion lbs of greenhouse gas emissions, 3.2 billion gallon of water, 1,1 billion pounds wood, 177 millions pounds of waste, and 1.1 million kWh of electricity.
Digital document solutions can be incorporated into a larger sustainability strategy by any organization. ITV is the UK’s largest commercial television network. It aims to have zero carbon emissions and no waste by 2030. ITV has adopted Adobe Document Cloud to automate document processes. More than 800 employees saved 3.4 millions pieces of paper per year by switching to Adobe Document Cloud. ITV’s staff was able to reduce its paper consumption and still meet production demands and challenges.
Adobe was a pioneer in the digitalization of paper documents 30 years ago, with its PDF format. We’re committed to continuing our mission with the guiding principle of scaling our impact by enabling our global customers to meet their sustainability goals through our products. Adobe Document Cloud has processed over 8 billion electronic and virtual signature transactions in the past year.
Learn how to make your business more sustainable by saving time, resources, emissions, and costs—as well as provide data and benchmarks for sustainability initiatives—through our free calculators that estimate the environmental savings that come with using Acrobat digital document products.