Email Fax: The One Best Step To Turning Your Office 'Green'

Did you know your traditional office fax machine often consumes the most energy of all your equipment? According to EnergyStar, the joint EPA and DOE energy conservation initiative, the average fax machine consumes between 30 and 350 watts per hour. Part of the reason why it consumes more energy is also the fact that most office fax machines are kept on 24 hours a day.

Additionally there's the fax machine paper usage. Did you know that:

- 210 billion sheets of paper are consumed by faxing in US based companies every year.
- 10,000 sheets of paper per year are used by a single employee
- 12,500 sheets of paper can be made from 1 tree
- 95% of the paper will eventually be thrown away, not recycled.
- 4 trees per year are cut down to meet the fax requirements of an average company in the US.
- 17 million trees per year are cut down to supply fax paper for the US as a whole

So what's the solution?

Email to fax service.

An online fax service makes it easy to send a fax to email as well as receive a fax by email. You can send a fax online using online fax software, print any document from your computer directly to a fax or send a fax by email, attaching it in any number of document file types including MS Word, PDF, Excel and many others.

Online fax service is available from many vendors. You can compare the costs, features and benefits of email fax services online to see which fax to email solution makes the most sense for your situation.

In addition to the cost and energy savings of using a fax to email service is the convenience of receiving all your fax documents by email. If you travel or aren't at the office, you can still get your fax by email at any computer with an internet connection.

By using online fax software, you not only save energy, but you also save paper by handling all the communication electronically. With most fax to email software, you can modify or annotate the incoming faxes you receive on your computer and send them right out again without needing to print, scan and fax again. Most services send your faxes in PDF format as attachments, and can be stored efficiently on your hard drive or backed up on CD/DVD's if you require archives. No paper needed!

And there's the time savings. No more running back and forth from the fax machine, waiting for paper jams or other faxes to be received, waiting in line and then waiting for faxes to be delivered to your desk. How much time to do you waste with the office fax machine?

I liberated myself from my traditional fax machine over 6 years ago and have found using an email to fax service easy, convenient, cost and energy efficient and just plain cool. To find a place to recycle your old fax machines, visit the EPA web site for organizations in your area.

Here's to turning your office green!

About The Author-- Mark Idzik is passionate about finding ways to 'go green' and preserve our natural resources. He reviews online fax services where you can compare the features, costs and additional information on email fax services by visiting his site: Email Fax Services Compared

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