Within the GRI Standards for sustainability reporting, GRI 306: Waste 2020 focuses on assessing and disclosing waste-related impacts arising from a company’s operations and value chain. Specifically, GRI 306-1 requires organizations to identify the activities, inputs, and outputs that may lead to significant waste-related impacts, while GRI 306-2 addresses measures to prevent waste generation, manage associated impacts, and monitor waste-related data. Together, these disclosures provide a framework for businesses to identify sources of waste, evaluate their management measures, and transparently report their efforts to mitigate environmental impacts.
Paper is one of the waste streams generated by businesses through administrative and operational activities. Its environmental impact extends beyond disposal, beginning with paper production, which requires wood-based raw materials, water, and energy. In Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Pulp and Paper Association (VPPA), consumption of printing and writing paper increased by 29.2% in 2025 compared with the previous year, indicating continued growth in demand for this category. Against this backdrop, reducing printing and the use of paper-based documents in business processes offers a practical way to improve resource efficiency while helping prevent waste generation at its source.
Within the Paperless Office model, the FPT IS digital ecosystem helps businesses reduce their reliance on paper documents across multiple operational processes. FPT.SPro enables the digitalization of internal forms, requests, and approval workflows, reducing the need to print and circulate physical documents between departments. FPT.eContract supports electronic contract creation, signing, and management, while FPT.eInvoice facilitates electronic invoice issuance and management. When these digital workflows replace paper-based processes, businesses can reduce the need for printing, photocopying, and physical document storage, thereby contributing to paper waste prevention in line with the principles outlined in GRI 306-2.
FPT IS’s implementation experience demonstrates how the Paperless Office model can be applied to real-world business operations. Among FPT.eInvoice customers, one enterprise has recorded as many as 250,000 invoices issued in a single day. Assuming that each invoice were printed on one sheet of 80 gsm A4 paper, this would require approximately 1.25 metric tons of paper in that day alone, excluding additional resources needed for printing and physical storage. Such a volume illustrates the potential scale of paper that could eventually become waste after use, highlighting the value of replacing paper invoices with electronic ones.
Similarly, in internal operations, at a wood products manufacturing and export company in Vietnam with more than 2,000 employees across multiple factories, hundreds of requests arise daily, requiring coordination between departments. Before digitalization, approval processes still relied on printing request forms, physically circulating documents across departments for handwritten signatures, and waiting for authorized personnel to approve them. Given the company’s geographically distributed operations, these processes involved substantial reliance on printed documents and their physical circulation.
Following the implementation of FPT.SPro, the company transitioned to initiating requests, approving tasks, and tracking progress directly through the platform. Today, 107 digital workflows are operational, processing more than 10,000 requests per month. This case illustrates how businesses can replace paper-based document handling with electronic workflows, thereby reducing the need for printing and helping prevent paper waste at its source.
To ensure that changes in business operations contribute meaningfully to sustainability objectives, businesses need a quantitative basis for assessing resource consumption reduction following digitization. Rather than simply tracking the number of electronic invoices, electronic contracts, or requests processed online, organizations should monitor actual indicators such as paper consumption, the number of pages printed, and physical document storage requirements before and after implementation. For example, comparing paper consumption in accounting departments across reporting periods, alongside the proportion of transactions processed entirely digitally and changes in transaction volumes, can help businesses assess the extent to which their reliance on paper-based documentation has decreased.
Such operational data not only supports the evaluation of digital transformation outcomes but also provides a basis for estimating the amount of paper waste prevented. In line with GRI 306, monitoring waste prevention measures against clearly defined baselines and calculation methodologies can provide businesses with stronger evidence to assess and disclose their environmental performance.
Read more:
– Paperless Office: How the FPT IS Digital Ecosystem Drives the Twin Transition and Supports ESG Goals
