'Make' other people green...

No...not green with envy. Kermit the Frog may have been mistaken, it is easy being green...in fact, much easier than not being green. Scanning and emailing documents, or emailing them straight from a computer is so much easier than waiting for them to print, going to the fax machine, dialing the number, waiting for the pages to go through, waiting for the confirmation, maybe even re-faxing them...not that that was a difficult process-just a pain...and even more time consuming.

However, in our industry, it can be difficult to convince people that they REALLY don't need a paper copy of everything (and sometimes in triplicate!), as was the norm 'in the old days'. But these are the new days, and I love the synergy of everyone coming together with green ideas! I have seen a lot of information out there as to how to be greener at home, and in a business as a whole, but...

I like the idea of helping others who, for whatever reason, wouldn't become green on their own. I love it when an agent tells me they only want emails-hey, this saves on either 1.) faxing (see above), or 2.) having things delivered to their office (not that we mind seeing them!), which also saves on gas and emissions, plus it will get to them faster 99.99% of the time.

I think real estate agents can help by requesting that their title company email as many things to them as possible, including title reports, CC&R's (especially!), and property profiles (unless you need one that is in a cover for presentation). They can also help by emailing new orders for title rather than faxing them-besides, this keeps the copies of the purchase contract cleaner and more legible.

I think title companies can help make a difference by sending out an email (preferably) to their clients and customers, asking them to respond back if they would like to receive their requested documents via email, rather than fax or delivery.

Loan officers, processors, lenders, etc., can help in much the same way by sending orders over via email, or better yet, online (many companies have online ordering available). Like agents, they can also request to have documents sent to them via email.

I would love for anyone to add ideas of steps we can take in our industry to reduce (or eliminate) the amount of paper-use and paper-travel in our collective industries. (and, no, it's not for the points!)