‘Think before you print’: the EMAL message for ‘Paperless Day’

Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) celebrated ‘Paperless Day 2012’ with a campaign “Think before you print” at the Al Taweelah smelter aimed at making employees think twice about what they print out. Held on the 21^st of November, the ‘Paperless Day’ campaign is an initiative by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) with the aim to encourage everyone to reduce the amount of paper printed. 

Commenting on the importance of ‘Paperless Day’, Saeed Fadhel Al Mazrooei, President and CEO of EMAL, said:  “. ‘Protection of the Environment’ is one of our core values and we are committed to the 5Rs: Reduce, Re-use, Recyle, Recover and Responsibly dispose. Having the ‘Paperless Day’, reminds our employees of the need to think about the resources they are using and the impact their decisions have on the environment. Reducing the amount of paper we use will reduce our impact on the environment by preserving trees, energy, and reducing the waste sent to landfill. It is a one day commitment that we hope to turn into a lifetime habit.” 

This was the second year that EMAL had fully participated in ‘Paperless Day’ considering the success of from last year’s campaign in 2011. The numbers of pages printed by each department were monitored during ‘Paperless Day’ and the department printing the least number of pages would be declared the winner. For this year, Human Resource Departments was the winning department; which succeeded to reduce paper printing from 3.4 to 1.6 prints per day per employee, a total reduction of 55%.   

‘Paperless Day’ was introduced by Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) in 2008 to combat paper wastage amongst organizations and communities. 21^st November 2012 is the fifth paperless day organized by EAD. The event has grown rapidly with almost 300,000 participants signed up in 2012 to stop all unnecessary printing.