When the Apollo 11 landed on the moon, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the lunar surface and said something very profound “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. That small step for Mr Armstrong was indeed a momentous occasion for humankind. Now imagine if all of mankind took one small step in the right direction towards preserving our planet. Without going to the moon, many small steps on planet earth is what supply chain experts EFL Global implemented and then leveraged corporate communication to communicate its impact, encourage its peers and amplify the possibilities.

In an industry that uses trillions of sheets of paper a day, to save a tree a day every day is one small step. Or is it actually? When you go to the depths and study each step that goes into saving a tree a day, you unearth the significance of such a task. Moving to e-subscriptions from physical ones seems easy but its impact on distribution and archival requires significant investments. Dual monitors to refer to documents on screens and not sheets is a significant drain on profitability. A new filing system requires reinventing the wheel, investment, training and adoption.

Moving from regular printing paper to recycled printing paper costs about 25% more. Now multiply that cost 19 times for each office in India. But what made this a success, was the shift in mindset across the team. It wasn’t about one memo or mandate. Every single team member was personally involved and responsible for this change. That’s the power of corporate communication. It rallies the forces around a singular mission. It communicates milestones, sets goals, celebrates achievements and keeps the momentum going.

Corporate communication slowly and steadily ensured these methods transpired conscientious actions across all their 19 offices. After 3 years of small yet well-intentioned actions, today, the movement has grown to save at least 10,000 sheets every day. Now, they’re going global with this initiative, encouraging their offices across the world to adopt more sustainable practices and processes. Because it takes only 10,000 sheets to help save one tree. Imagine what we can do, if the whole world got together to do one small thing right, every day. Well thats the power of corporate communication if its done right and with the might of the organisation rallying behind it.