This is the next in a series of guest blog posts by IntraLinks’ collaborators, partners, and vendors. Horwath MAK offers clients expertise in auditing and accountancy, risk consultancy, management consultancy and structured business support services throughout the UAE, Oman, Azerbaijan and India.

Ancient Egyptians invented paper some 3,000 years ago, from beaten strips of papyrus plants. The immediate predecessor to modern paper is believed to have originated in China in approximately the 2nd century AD. Since its invention, paper has been widely used around the globe for generations to transfer acquired knowledge. It has been a resilient platform for recording and storing information, and has been a solid contributor to the rise of our modern human society.

What does the term "greenwashing" mean?

As the trend of corporate responsibility steers companies to jump on the "green bandwagon," some remain involved only at surface level. "Greenwashing" refers to companies who unjustifiably portray themselves to the public as environmentally conscious. These companies make more efforts to appear to reduce their environmental impact than efforts to invest in the business practices that would actually do so.

As a business professional, I fend off hundreds of emails in a day with various weapons of choice like my BlackBerry or my company laptop. (One recent report estimates the average person sends and receives 133 email messages a day!) Yet just when I think I'm winning the "Battle of the (email) Bulge" by diligently responding, filing, and deleting, I realize mine is a pyrrhic victory. The corporate paper trail I deal with extends well beyond email, piling up in reams of documents that clutter our desks, filing cabinets, faxes, and printers.

The real war against document proliferation is going on right in front of us: on the desktop (the physical one, not the virtual one). A recent study by the Association for Information and Image Management (AAIM) shows that the average professional photocopies a single document 19 times. Multiply that by the estimated 4 trillion paper documents in the U.S. that are growing at a rate of 22% per year and you have quite a pile of paper to manage.

As consumers, I think we are aware of the necessity to change the way we produce and consume things – from food and clothing to transit and buildings – to be more environmentally friendly. And no matter where we fall on the “green” spectrum, I’d wager that we all make some personal efforts to reduce waste and conserve energy.