Pulp (Non) Fiction

Here at DotLoop, we talk an awful lot about creating a paperless solution for the real estate industry.

But why?

For anyone who's involved in real estate transactions, that answer is all too obvious. The average real estate negotiation uses 100 sheets of paper. And that's when things go smoothly (ie, no short sales or HUD purchases).

Okay...so what?

I used to ask so what as well; after all, paper is from trees, which, last I checked, tend to grow back. Isn't paper a renewable resource?

Yes and no. True, paper is made from tree pulp, but it's more than just minced bark. In her new book The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard uses a whole section to discuss paper (don't worry; she also discusses the irony of writing a book that talks about how environmentally damaging paper is - the book uses unbleached, recycled paper and soy ink).

Here are some facts:

• The US consumes some 80 million tons of paper each year.
• For every ton of virgin office or copier paper, two to three tons of trees are cut down.
• The typical office worker uses some ten thousand sheets of paper every year.
• Almost three-quarters (71%) of all paper comes from forests, not tree-farms or recycled pulp.
• Almost 40% of all municipal trash in the US is paper.

As you can see, there's more than meets the eye when it comes to paper. This list is just the tip of the iceberg, too, and does not account for the bleaching, the chemicals, or the actual production of the paper (not to mention the shipping).

There's no papering-over the facts: using paper is environmentally (and economically) costly. Of course, creating online negotiations using DotLoop keeps the paper where it should be: in the trees.