Last week the LA Times ran an article about a trend in which email senders add a tag line to their outgoing messages, encouraging the recipient to “consider the impact on the environment before printing this email.â€
I’m all for considering the impact of our actions on the environment, and there’s nothing wrong with the occasional reminder. Sure, it may come off as a little smug, especially when the tag is appended to an unsolicited email from someone looking for a favor – but as far as I’m concerned, there’s a bigger problem with the “don’t print this email†trend.
Who the heck prints their emails?! Seriously. Are people getting long, involved emails that need to be printed and read away from the computer? Are many of your emails filled with critically important information that needs to be paper-filed? I’ll admit that I occasionally print longer articles that I don’t have time to read at work, or reference materials that will be more useful in a paper copy. But most of the emails I receive are only a few lines long. I read an email, and then I either respond, delete it, or save it for later. Whenever I see a tagline admonishing me not to print all I can think is why on earth would I?
Maybe I’m out of touch. Maybe the offices I’ve worked in have been too hip to do something silly like print emails on a regular basis. But I’m incredulous, and I’d wager a bet that the “don’t print†tagline has outlived its usefulness.
Time to move on. I propose a new tagline: Please remember to turn off your computer when you leave your office. I know a lot more people who leave their computers on than people who print their email.