Staff:

• Start by having a team discussion to make everyone aware of the benefits of being Digital Smart and identify if any further training or support is required to improve these skills

• Continue to hold paper-free meetings when back on campus

• Make a list of the type of documents that get printed and find ways to keep these digital

• Consider if there are any internal or external facing business processes that involve printing documents and whether these could be updated to digital

• Being conscious of your paper consumption is a key step in reducing usage. To view your departments printing data, click here.

Students:

• Are you able to submit work digitally? If not, ask!

• See the list of useful software and information below

• To get the most out of Office365, you can transfer your team’s documents into SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams from your shared and home drives. The transfer template will help guide you through this process.

  • Contact Rachael Maguire, Information and Records Manager, r.e.maguire@lse.ac.uk for further help.

• OneDrive allows you to share and edit documents with your team in real time (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

• OneNote is a digital notebook for all your notes and to do lists. You can also create team OneNotes for better collaboration

• DTS FAQs and help and support for campus computers and printing

• Visit DTS's OneDrive for Business and H: Space for guides and FAQs
• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC allows you to highlight PDFs, search and write comments/notes

• Tools and tricks to ease on-screen reading

• Read our 'Sustainable Printing' guide.

Recommended printer settings:

• Black and white

• Double-sided

• 2 pages/sheet printing

• Specify page range to print

• Check preview before printing

• Scale e.g., 'fit to one page'

Digital Skills Training

• LSE Training System (staff)

• Technology-enhanced learning (staff)

• LSE’s Digital Skills Lab (students)

• LSE LIFE (students)

Useful software 

• MS Teams 

• Zoom

Collaborating online helps us reduce our travel related emissions

If you must travel for work, remember to choose the most sustainable option and to book your journey through the School's travel management company (Diversity).

Phase out desktop printers

Desktop printers use more resources and therefore have a much higher environmental impact than multi-functional device printers e.g., buying multiple devices, using more energy and ink, generating cartridge waste, they are also higher maintenance with a lower life expectancy.  

• Individual desktop printers are being gradually phased out as a School wide policy, and new desktop printers are only purchased on an exceptional basis using the desktop printer request form

• You can arrange for your unwanted desktop printers to be collected by contacting estates.porters@lse.ac.uk

Transition to softphone

Softphone software programmes allow you to make external phone calls using a general purpose computer, removing the need for a physical desk phone or mobile.

• DTS' guidance on using MS Teams Softphone

• Speak to your Department or Division Administrator to find out more

The main environmental impact of electronics occurs during their manufacture as they contain rare and valuable materials (particularly mobile phones).

• Look after and make the most of your existing devices to prolong their life

• Carefully consider your needs before purchasing electronic devices

• Students can recycle electronic waste at LSE Careers on the 5th floor of the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre

• To recycle LSE e-devices, arrange a collection from LSE Porters

• Reduce printing one pager

• Printers' provision policy

• Digital Smart slide deck

• Changes to course packs and student printing credits for 2021/22 (staff factsheet and student factsheet)

In 2018/19 we:

• Printed 12 million pages of paper (equivalent to c1,200 trees or 546 tonnes CO2e)

• Emitted 3,344 tonnes CO2e travelling across the world, mostly a result of air travel

• Generated over 18 tonnes of electrical and electronic waste