With the gubernatorial election slated for November 2, 2010, things are starting to heat up in Florida…over paper clips.
As odd as it may sound, some of the debating has to do with counting paper clips and other office supplies and may add up to some serious — $20 million — cents.
Democratic candidacy aside, in her role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the State of Florida and “paper-clip-saving-queen”, Alex Sink believes that her department can save tax payers $200,000 this year simply by putting a freeze on office supply spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. That’s a savings she calculates to be 30 percent for just one governmental department.
Sink’s opposition in the race does not think this idea will create jobs, but that is not what she has set out to do in her role as CFO.
Last year, Sink formed a task force to inventory office supplies in an effort to cut costs. Staff found surpluses of 37,601 individual binder clips and 17,425 individual pens along with 537 pounds of paper clips in the Department of Financial Services inventory. Sinks aides also calculated that the State of Florida as a whole spent almost $47 million on office supplies in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
Another part of Sink’s initiative involves establishing the “CFO Depot,” an interoffice website where agency workers share and trade surplus supplies. Further, Sink makes recommendations to other state departments so they can establish office supply reuse programs as well; Sink’s office reports that even NASA is interested.
And Florida is not the only state to be on board with office supply reuse. Brian LaValle with the State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Consumer Programs Division says, “MassDEP encourages (and practices reuse) of office supplies for the obvious reason that if you maximize the use of the materials you have then there is less need to buy more items.” He added, “This results in the consumption of fewer resources, which saves money and reduces the strain on the environment through the production and distribution of those resources.”
Throughout the country, businesses and institutions are also realizing savings, and your business can benefit as well.
Four Ways to Make Reuse Work in the Office
1. It’s Not all Pens and Paperclips
Your office supply reuse program need not be only paperclips, staplers and pens. Paper items provide opportunities for significant reduction of waste and reuse.
For instance, double-siding paper is a reuse idea that is frequently overlooked because this resource may already be used – once. Reusing the blank side of unused print jobs at your desk and in the copier or fax machine decreases the need for the purchase of paper, notepads and sticky notes and fully uses paper resources before they are recycled.
Defaulting copy machines to duplex mode can also reduce the consumption of paper. In 2008, offices generated over 27 million tons of paper, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Double-siding print documents could reduce this rate by 20 percent or 5 million tons.
Further significant savings can be found with shipping container reuse.
After receiving office supplies from New England Office Supply (NEOS) packaged in nearly 50,000 delivery boxes in 2008, the State of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Consumer Programs Division decided to run a pilot program for statewide package reuse in 2009.
“The beauty of the pilot was that you could point to both environmental and financial benefits,” said LaValle. Because NEOS collected its delivery boxes back from the state agencies for reuse, the state had less packaging to dispose, and there were fewer packaging costs for NEOS, which they could then pass on to the state.
The pilot revealed that if NEOS collected and reused the boxes it packaged office supplies in for delivery to the state agencies just two additional times before recycling, the result would be 32,000 fewer boxes used overall. At a cost of 55 cents per box, this adds up to approximately $18,000 annually in savings.
Further, the pilot found that the cost savings opportunities provided the incentive for both NEOS and state agencies to reuse and recycle. It was also evident that commitment from senior management for environmental initiatives is key. LaValle explained, “In the case of MassDEP’s package reuse pilot program the initial resistance of getting folks to change their habits was the most difficult. If there was support from senior management then that agency had success.“
2. Centralized Location(s) for Sharing
The idea of setting up a reuse cabinet for office supplies is not new, but with budgets tight nationwide, CFO Sink’s common-sense approach presents an ‘idea whose time has come again.’
LaValle uses MassDEP’s Boston headquarters as an example, “[It] has several reuse stations on each floor where folks can find used office supplies such as binders, folders, writing implements, scissors, books, envelopes, tape, staplers, you name it.” He adds further, “This greatly reduces the need for employees to have to buy new materials and it is much faster and easier to get a hold of something you need from the reuse station than it is to order something and wait for delivery.”
It may seem intuitive, but setting up a centralized location, keeping like items together (e.g., tape with tape dispensers) and labeling items goes a long way in keeping reuse items efficiently organized and easily accessed.
If you work for a large business or multiple facility operation, you can also consider using interoffice transport for your reuse program as well implementing an improved inventory system (e.g., an optical scanner) to provide a more precise control over supplies and aid in your re-ordering processes.
LaValle also recommends getting everyone on board from the start, “Send out an e-mail letting everyone know about the reuse stations, what’s in them, where they are and ask for donations.” He adds that it’s even better if the information can come from management, “encouraging everyone to use the reuse station – it saves money, time, and resources.”
3. Let the Web Help Sort Things Out
In the first few months of operation, Sink’s “CFO Depot” has seen hundreds of items exchanged. According to Jayme O’Rourke, Press Correspondent with the Florida Department of Financial Services Office of CFO Alex Sink, the site is set up with two main sections, “’We Have It’ where divisions post notices of items they have to either swap of give; ‘You Want It’ where Divisions post items they need.” O’Rourke says, “It works like Craigslist.”
The “CFO Depot” has even seen some surprises. O’Rourke explains, “Some amazing exchanges have occurred – another aspect of the CFO Depot is that employees have been finding ‘out of stock items’ and other items they had long ago given up hope of finding – on the site, free!”
Similar to Sink’s “CFO Depot,” many states boast online material exchange opportunities that can prove useful with packaging and other office supply reuse.
MassDEP developed the Mass Material Trader, a free on-line material exchange network for businesses and manufacturers in Massachusetts to assist with reuse of materials.
LaValle says he ”would encourage businesses in Massachusetts to use this resource if they are wondering what to do with surplus inventory, manufacturing by-products, or even office furniture.” He adds, “Businesses can post those items that would otherwise be disposed of. Businesses can also search for items that are in many cases free to avoid purchasing new items, saving money and the environment.”
The Mass Material Trader is linked to the Reuse Marketplace the nation’s first multi-state materials exchange, which enables businesses, government agencies and nonprofits that have unwanted materials to connect with markets beyond their local areas.
4. Order Consolidation
You need not have a moratorium on the purchase of office supplies like CFO Sink has instituted for her department, but don’t overlook purchasing practices as part of your overall office supply reuse plan. How you order supplies can have a significant impact on your company’s bottom line.
The 2009 MassDEP pilot study also looked at order consolidation. Before the pilot, New England Office Supply was required to provide next-day service for office supply orders placed from participating agencies at $8.78 per order for packaging, processing and delivery (without fuel). The next-day service often resulted in multiple deliveries to state shipping locations each day.
By reducing deliveries to just one day per week, the 25 state agencies at more than 70 locations in nine communities participating in the pilot were able to help reduce the orders shipped by 26 percent. This amounted to savings of roughly $46,000, and allowed NEOS to put 24,450 fewer miles on their delivery trucks – not to mention they saved 2,750 gallons of fuel.
LaValle says the successful pilot may be transformed into legislation this year, but you don’t have to have a law, environmental purchasing policy or large business to benefit from the way supplies are ordered. Consolidated ordering can be used by small businesses as well. Even individual businesses that share an office complex may get better rates and help conserve fuel if they work together to place orders.
LaValle says, “There would certainly be costs savings associated with the reuse of packaging materials and, as mentioned above, if you couple this with the practice of reusing office supplies to maximize their life cycle costs for each purchase you could see direct and immediate savings.” He adds, “there could be reduced fuel costs with less deliveries to a facility, but this would have to be measured against the supplier actually reducing its route for all its customers on that route not just for your delivery.”
Even consolidating orders within a single company can be difficult and may not produce benefits if there is no streamlined approach to ordering. “Those companies that use a more fragmented system will have more difficulty herding the cats so to speak and will have to resolve any issues related to budgetary management (making sure that there is no overlap between department budgets for the purchase of office supplies),” says LaValle. “Some companies operate under a more streamlined operational system where purchasing and warehousing is done in a central location and I could see those companies implementing this type of system [consolidated ordering] very easily.”
And how did Sink’s moratorium do since it was announced at the end of January of this year? According to O’Rourke, fiscal year-end figures from June 30th revealed that they reduced expenditures on office supplies by $225,000 – exceeding CFO Sink’s goal by $5,000. Additionally, while final figures on the ‘CFO Depot’ component of Sink’s initiative are not yet available, O’Rourke said a report issued in March showed further savings – “ use of the ‘CFO Depot’ feature on our website along with other swap/reuse actions (instead of new purchases) [has] saved over $11,000.”
An office supply reuse program may not win you the governorship; however, it will be a big win for your company’s bottom line and our valuable natural resources.
Start the conversation…®
A single standard 033 gauge paperclip from a local office supply store costs roughly 4.5 cents. What small-change items are in surplus in your office that can help contribute to significant reuse savings?
You can learn more about the Florida Department of Financial Services support of CFO Sink’s reuse initiative in their CREW (Commodities Review & Efficiency Workgroup) Project Report.
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