Producing paper takes a LOT of water. Using my very simple maths, based on figures from Friends of The Earth, it takes at least 250 litres of water to produce a ream or 500 sheets of A4 paper.

Generally, we don't use a lot of paper in our office, however, the old fax machine used to receive plenty of fax SMAP. You know the faxes you get offering 7 nights in Thailand for a ridiculously low price or inkjet cartridge replacement offers etc. It used to frustrate me the amount of paper these SPAM faxes would waste – much like junk mail I suppose. But recently we've put an end to all the paper waste created by needless faxes. We've started using a virtual fax service.

Signing up for a virtual fax service gives you a phone number your clients can send normal faxes to. The Virtual Fax Service then converts the faxed document to an electronic format, such as PDF, and forwards it to your email address. This means you can delete non-print worthy faxes just like you'd delete spam. No wasted paper or ink.

Need to send a fax? No problem. Just email the PDF, MS Word or Excel document to an your Virtual Fax Service provider with the recipients phone number and you're done. No printing and no wastage due to unsolicited faxes.

There are plenty of providers to choose from. Here are a couple of Australian virtual fax services to choose from:

Move one step closer to the paperless office and use less water, get a virtual fax service.