Business eco-advisers at Envirowise have urged office workers on Teesside to cut down on ‘trigger-happy' printing, as it emerged the UK consumes 12.5 million tonnes of paper and board each year.

Workers at Garlands Call Centres, one of the largest employers on Teesside with around 3,000 staff at sites including Middlesbrough, Stockton and Hartlepool, will save 15 tonnes of waste paper across the group in 2008.

Their efforts are part of a string of green schemes brought in recently, including car sharing among staff, energy-saving and recycling.

Martyn Collins, Garlands' environmental manager, said: "Everyone seems to want to do their bit - and collectively we believe we can make a difference. For every tonne of paper recycled, we can save 17 trees and across the whole of the Garlands group this year we estimate we will recycle over 15 tonnes. That's a saving of over 250 trees."

But more than half of office workers still admit to wastefully printing documents they don't need - leading to 4.7 million tonnes of paper and board entering the UK waste stream each year.

Envirowise North-east regional manager, Guy Bashford, said: "Unnecessary printing of emails, multiple copies, single-sided printing and the sending of massive documents to the printer which are unlikely to be read, are just some of the regular scenarios lived out by businesses every day."

He added most offices can reduce waste costs by 20% by double-side or multiple-page printing and recycling.

Other employers on Teesside are also doing their bit.

Stockton Council is using handheld Blackberries for officers, staff intranet, the E-genda system for council papers and a trial of a web conferencing system to reduce the need for travel and paper minutes.

Meanwhile, two Teesside companies are urging businesses not send Christmas cards this year.

Brand designers Calm Asylum, based on the Riverside East Industrial Park in Middlesbough, has already banned workplace Christmas cards and client Cornerstone Business Solutions, on Teesside Industrial estate in Stockton, has joined its campaign.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) estimates that 1bn Christmas cards end up in bins each year. Calm Asylum's solution was to introduce an online advent calendar.

Mark Easby, director, said: "With the UK's green agenda growing in importance we wanted to show companies there is a cost effective alternative that keeps consciences green."

Chris Petty, director of Cornerstone Business Solutions, added: "For me office Christmas cards, in the traditional hard copy format, are almost redundant now as more and more people go online to communicate."

A free Green Officiency Toolkit, issued by Envirowise helps office workers identify ways of making savings, while improving their company's environmental credentials. The toolkit is available to order from www.envirowise.gov.uk/greenofficiency