[Written By External Partner]
Business significantly affects the environment, from plastic bags in the supermarket to greenhouse gas emissions. But even if you don’t own a supermarket or power station, you still leave your mark on the environment as long as you manage documents. Specifically, paper production leads to deforestation and habitat destruction, and paper manufacturing processes require a lot of resources and energy, often from non-renewable sources.
Fortunately, business leaders are becoming more environmentally aware and looking for ways to be greener regarding paperwork. One of the best and safest solutions they choose is virtual data rooms. But before we explain how this green platform works, let’s see what sustainable document management is and why it’s so important.
What is sustainable document management?
Sustainable document management is the eco-conscious way of handling data throughout its life cycle, including collection, processing, storage, and disposal. This concept aims to optimize resource use, minimize environmental impact, reduce energy consumption, and make people use data more ethically and socially responsibly.
Why is sustainable document management important?
There are various reasons why adopting a paperless approach to document management is essential in addressing environmental challenges. They are as follows:
1. Forest conservation
Humanity’s dependence on paper plays a cruel trick on forests across the planet. Deforestation is known to contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss. The more companies go paperless, the more planets and vital ecosystems we can save.
2. Reduced energy consumption
Manufacturing, transporting and disposing of paper involves significant energy consumption and produces greenhouse gas emissions. A paperless way of doing business, in turn, lowers energy consumption, which helps reduce carbon emissions.
3. Waste-reduction
26% of total waste at landfills comes from paper, as the paper industry produces a tremendous amount of waste, including inefficient printing and discarded documents. Thus, refusing paper documents reduces waste globally.
It’s no secret that people don’t care what this world will be like after their life. Consequently, many of us are far from eco-concepts in everyday life and at work. However, being green has a huge advantage for business leaders. Specifically, an eco-friendly image can make you attractive to partners and investors and give you a competitive advantage in attracting environmentally conscious customers.
As you can see, being eco-friendly can benefit not only the environment but also your reputation and profits.
What are virtual data rooms for paperless document management?
Virtual data rooms are secure storage facilities designed for businesses to store and share data. Unlike other solutions, it includes dozens of security mechanisms and complies with international security standards. Consequently, users can keep and share documents of any privacy level online without fear during the due diligence process, M&A, and any other deal requiring confidentiality protection.
Here’s how Angleo Dean, CEO of datarooms.org, described the security of documents stored in data room software:
“Ensuring document security is our commitment, no matter what. It is not just data protection on our part but also a guarantee of trust, confidentiality and peace of mind for our clients”.
What are the benefits of going paperless with online data room software?
Whatever platform you choose to manage data online and be eco, you will do your part to save our planet. However, it is equally important to obtain benefits for yourself, which depend on the software you choose. So, why are data room services better than Google Drive, Dropbox, and their alternatives?
Let’s focus on the advantages that you can enjoy as a user without mentioning reductions in paper usage and savings on non-renewable resources.
Streamlined collaboration and remote access
Online data room software has everything you need to collaborate and stay in touch with clients or investors in real time. These include group and private chats, Q&A modules, video conferencing tools, and e-signatures. So, cooperation is the same as if you were in the same office, but all parties are in their places.
Improved document lifecycle management
With version control and document retention policies unique to the electronic data room, you can streamline document processing and minimize the storage of old and unnecessary documents.
Unbreakable data security
Going paperless reduces the risk of data loss due to fires or floods, but that’s not the security we’re talking about here. Virtual data room providers deliver data encryption, watermarking, file and user level permissions, data backup, IP address and time restrictions, fence view, and much more that other solutions can’t offer.
Compliance
Since specific document storage requirements regulate many industries, data room vendors have also taken care of this aspect of your business. Thus, they can help organizations maintain compliance by securely storing and managing documents, ensuring they can be easily audited and tracked without extensive paperwork.
These are only some of the benefits the best data room providers offer. However, it’s important to note that while all products are designed to simplify online document management and streamline workflows, products may still differ. Therefore, compare virtual data rooms, paying attention to document management features and mechanisms that protect data before choosing.
Final thoughts
Perhaps eco-friendliness wouldn’t have become such a popular trend in business worldwide if it hadn’t brought multiple benefits to the companies. So why not kill two birds with one stone? Choose the best virtual data room for you, do your part to save the planet, and earn yourself a better image by going green!
