The paperless revolution: Reducing environmental impact through the cloud

While many people are aware of the impact of deforestation, the wider environmental impact is often understated. The production of paper from raw materials creates a great deal of pollution from energy use – accounting for 9% of manufacturing green house gas emissions globally – and chemical by-products, as well as reducing availability of clean water, with between 2 and 13 litres being used for each sheet of A4. It’s vital that we use the tools we have to make a difference.

The question is: what’s the alternative?

At OneAdvanced, we believe that a significant part of the solution is cloud migration. We provide a range of cloud-first products through our private cloud solutions, which we also use.

Cloud-based services allow greater connectivity, more data security and greater process efficiency. When dealing with paper documents, or even documents on single-point internal systems, you are more likely to lose it. You’re always at risk without a backup.

By centralising our cloud services, we make them more efficient. We become more efficient in terms of how we handle data, but also in terms of resources. That means less paper, less hardware spread around the business, and less time spent searching for what we need.

It's not just about us

We are committed to supporting our customers to achieve the same cloud transformation that we have benefitted from. Our products and services support a large number of NHS trusts to provide critical services, and they are able to achieve that through our cloud products. This has allowed the NHS to develop and improve the services they provide to the British public.

They have also been able to make environmentally friendly changes to their practices. Through their use of the OneAdvanced portfolio, the NHS have reduced their paper usage by six tonnes per day. This has a significant impact on deforestation, paper production impact and waste management.

In the face of increased pressure from all angles, the NHS is an organisation that needs to have the very best to support them. When facing more and more difficulties on the front-line of healthcare, it’s imperative that they have the tools to keep going. Cloud-based solutions are the answer to many of their challenges.

When faced with stretched resources, a more financially efficient cloud solution can be the answer. When patient confidentiality is key and cyber-attacks are on the rise, the extra security offered by properly managed cloud systems can overcome the pitfalls of paper documents. And when time saves lives, the efficiency and convenience of cloud-based solutions can turn things around for quality patient care.

A big change

It's not always easy to make the most of the Cloud. Updating IT infrastructure takes time and resources, which puts many organisations off from making the change. When it comes time to make the change, you need a trusted partner to make sure that you are making the most of cloud capabilities.

You also need a partner you can trust to be making the most of the environmental benefit of cloud solutions. Cloud infrastructure relies on large server centres, which use large amounts of power and cooling resources. That is why many cloud infrastructure providers are investing in greener energy solutions for server centres. At OneAdvanced, our principal partner for cloud server infrastructure is Amazon Web Services. Amazon have been investing heavily in green energy solutions to power their solutions – reaching 90% renewable-sourced electricity in 2022.

Making the decision

It’s also important to weigh the benefits of cloud solutions against the impact and resource use involved. The hardware requirements of cloud-based software do make an impact on emissions. Energy for data centres accounts for ~0.7% of CO₂ emissions globally, which is a significant figure.

This is, however, lower than the 1% attributable to paper production, which also emits a range of other pollutants. With significant investment in lowering emissions for data centres, especially through modernised cooling processes, such as Google’s evaporative cooling, these emissions can and will be reduced. The future of cloud-based solutions is one which could make a significant impact on businesses’ emissions.

At OneAdvanced, we believe that paperless is the future, and we are creating the tools to make that future work. To protect our planet and provide the latest capabilities, we are powering the world of work for the future.