In a recent article, L.A. Times staff writer Abigail Goldman tells of a relatively new “green” movement to save paper: Stopping the excessive printing of emails.

It’s the kind of idea that may seem like small potatoes, but that could add up to something significant if it gains enough traction.

From the article:

The trend took off in March, when the popular environmental website TreeHugger.com encouraged readers to add the don’t-print plea to their automatic e-mail signatures.

Since then, the message has spread beyond the granola-and-Birkenstock crowd to the cubicle armies of corporate America. Architects, airline employees and even button-down accountants have gotten in on the act, as have companies such as media giant News Corp.

The parent of Fox Television offers employees a catchy admonition that riffs on the company’s “Cool Change” environmental initiative: “Be cool, consider the environment. Please don’t print this e-mail unless you really need to.”

… “It’s a testament to how cool green is that this particular message is appearing in so many business communications,” said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.

Environmentalists say the don’t-print message has genuine merit. Despite 20th century predictions of a paperless office, Americans use enough sheets every year to build a 10-foot-high wall that would stretch from New York to Tokyo and beyond, according to GreenPrint Technologies, which sells software to eliminate unnecessary pages before printing.

At the same time, an estimated 97 billion e-mails whisk through cyberspace every day. Technology trackers say more e-mails invariably mean more printouts, if for no other reason than that printing has become a habit. Last year, 53% of people surveyed told research firm IDC that they printed more because of e-mail. That means more paper, and more energy to shred or recycle it.

The growing mountains of printed pages encouraged Michael Graham Richard, TreeHugger.com’s editor, to get behind the please-don’t-print movement after he saw the auto-signature for the first time last winter.

This makes sense to us. One of the natural advantages of electronic communications should be reduced use of traditional natural resources like paper. And yet, for many of us, the habit of printing all of our emails is very ingrained.

Not everyone is convinced: According to the article, some believe that the movement only serves to provide a “kind of smug satisfaction about how green [you] are,” instead of actually taking a greater action to benefit the environment.

That may be; yet, there are benefits that go beyond the “green” trend:

Having a no-print policy along with scheduled purges of e-mails can help a business stave off spending millions of dollars to produce documents connected to lawsuits, Kahn said.

The bottom line? Eliminating waste is always a net positive, whether you’re looking at the environment, your recycling bills, or your own sense of “green” guilt.

So, here’s to hoping this movement catches hold. Spread the word. (And check out the original article in the Los Angeles Times here.)