These days, everyone wants to save the planet.

Electric cars roam the streets. Solar panels soak up the sun beating down on our rooftops. We all want to do our part, but even throwing away trash in a public place can stop you in your tracks – Do I put this paper cup go in the landfill receptacle or is it recyclable? Can I mix paper, plastic, metal and glass? Do I put it in the green or blue container?

Meanwhile, sky high utility rates are forcing us to conserve at home. And some of us are installing smart plugs in our homes to save us from the drain of “vampire power” — things that are “on” even when they’re not.

Businesses are not immune to the challenge. Sustainability is a catchall phrase that applies to more than just the greenest of the socially conscious. It has scooped up the corporate world, too.

In particular, pressure has mounted to reduce the amount and cost of energy consumed, and the greenhouse gases generated by, the buildings where businesses operate.

Many organizations have responded to the challenge by adopting sustainability plans. These plans help chart a course for enterprises to minimize the environmental impact of their core business practices, by reducing waste or cutting down on energy intensive practices.

Lucky for business, it has the tools and the resources to help combat global warming in ways that individuals cannot.

For example, migrating to one or more cloud computing platforms can help businesses save energy, cut costs, reduce waste and adopt business practices that lead to a healthier environment for their employees and satisfy the socially conscious expectations of the consumers they serve.

Cloud faxing is one of those platforms.

It won’t put solar panels on a building’s roof or power up your electric car, but it can help businesses meet their sustainability goals in a number of ways.

Here’s how:

• Cloud faxing reduces the paper stream by migrating to digital transmission.
• Cloud faxing reduces physical waste by eliminating the need for legacy fax machines and the printing supplies that feed them.
• Cloud faxing helps businesses become more energy efficient by eliminating the need to continuously power legacy fax machines, fax servers and the server rooms that support them.
• Cloud faxing shifts these energy costs to ‘the cloud’ there they can be more efficiently virtualized and shared by multiple users.
• Cloud faxing helps businesses “go paperless”, which everybody likes.
• Cloud faxing is a vital tool for businesses in energy intensive industries, like hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
• Cloud faxing helps business stay competitive in a changing landscape, where other businesses are adopting “sustainable” practices, too.

Of course, not all cloud platforms are created equal, and companies must perform their due diligence to find one that can meet the double challenge of cutting back highly energy intensive practices while at the same time complying with rigorous data privacy laws. For many organizations in industries like financial services, legal, manufacturing and healthcare, the security and integrity of their mission-critical communications is simply not negotiable.

That is why thousands of organizations, from SMBs to the largest enterprises, have selected eFax Corporate to help them meet their environmental goals. To learn more about how eFax can help customers reduce energy and paper consumption and meet their sustainability goals, please read our white paper, “How Cloud Fax Is Helping Businesses Save Money and the Environment.”