OAKLAND, Calif. — By taking advantage of a US. Securities and Exchange Commission rule, Sun Microsystems was able to save $500,000 and 100 million sheets of paper.

The SEC's Notice and Access rule lets companies make proxy materials available on websites and notify shareholders of their availability.

Sun only had to print about 80,000 hard copies of its proxy materials this year (shareholders can request physical copies) instead of the 1 million copies it printed last year by posting materials online.

"Providing our proxy materials over the Internet, with printed materials on request only, increases the transparency of our business, reduces what we introduce into the waste stream, and simultaneously pares down the needless expense of paper filings. Everyone wins," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and CEO of Sun.

For companies that aren't able to make such drastic cuts to paper use, but want to be more eco-friendly, there’s a new guide that shows businesses how they can cut their paper-based greenhouse gas emissions.

The Paper Consumer’s Guide to Climate Change by Metafore and The Gagliardi Group, gives businesses an overview on how to calculate the emissiosn caused by their paper use and what options they have to reduce or offset those emissions.

The guide encourages businesses to look at the entire lifecycle of the paper they consumer and analyze what paper stock they can eliminate or replace with recycled paper.