A local hairdresser who goes to customers' homes and manages their hair cuts and treatments might not need paper (or any other kind of) documents (and might indeed have a 'paperless office'). Any businesses of larger sizes cannot do without documents to satisfy tax and other authorities, to manage their businesses, and to keep track of their dues.

Even in this age of computers, paper documents are still used in large enough volumes to raise ecological concerns (you have to cut down trees to make paper). There are several reasons for the continuing popularity of paper:

In a scenario like the above, the paperless office is still quite a distance away (say, when the present computer-savvy, younger generation takes over).

It's difficult to visualize the full potential (and pitfalls) of a completely paperless office. Consider a possible scenario where paper passports have disappeared, for example. Biometric data about citizens are recorded and used to identify them. Some hidden sensor might scan their retina and authenticate their identity as they pass through the entry gates.

A similar revolution can take place in many other areas. Sensors in machines control production, others in warehouses keep track of merchandise receipts and shipments, voice recorders and identity sensors authenticate the terms of a contract (provided we can do away with legalese), and so on.

These kinds of scenarios are still far away. The next section illustrates the things we can do now to minimize the use of paper.

The following steps can help us move towards an office that uses a minimum of paper:

Even smaller businesses can implement at least some of these measures to move towards a paperless office (a journey without end!)