Paperless Transition for Veteran Career Workshops

Executive Summary
As part of my current role, I collaborate with different organizations to provide career assistance to transitioning, disabled veterans of the armed forces. These workshops are held year-round and nation-wide. They historically included a large amount of printed materials, the majority of which were thrown out at the conclusion of the workshop. As part of my efforts to continually process improve, we ran an event where all participants were given access to screens instead of printed materials, which saved 1,250 printed pages for the event. This has now been rolled out as part of our program, which spread across all the iterations per fiscal year should save around 50,000 pieces of paper.
Importance
Innovative, new solutions to sustainability issues are extremely important. I believe that sustainable practices being applied to existing programs are just as essential. This was a simple, but immediately impactful (both in terms of resources used and cost) change we were able to test out as my Leadership Project, and then implement across the organization as a new, sustainable best practice.
Impact and Reach
The project immediately saved 1,250 printed pages of paper. This success was documented and disseminated to our national-level leadership team and is now being implemented across 40 different iterations of this and similar programming nation-wide. The project is going to reach both internal and external stakeholders in the form of my organization (and it’s budget) and disabled veterans and their families as they transition from military service to civilian jobs.
Collaborations
Beyond my organization, the two collaborative entities involved were UCLA and Deloitte. Deloitte provided SME’s for career development including delivery of all curriculum, while UCLA provided the venue and many of the student veterans who attended the event. Others came from CSU Fullerton, UC Riverside, CSU Long Beach and USC.
My Role
This project was something I was in charge of developing for the Los Angeles region. I acted as the Project Manager throughout as well as creating a financial impact statement leading into the approval and implementation of a paperless delivery on a trial basis. I was in charge of delivering the multi-day event, coordinating all aspects and tracking impact after its conclusion.
Next Steps
I plan to continue my efforts here acting within my organization as the go-to SME for further, sustainable deliveries of these workshops. I will also endeavor to continue thinking of ways to make the programming we provide more impactful for our veterans and less impactful on the environment.