.wwf: The Tree-Saving File Format

The pipe dream of the paperless office has been around for a while, hoping to mitigate the massive paper waste generated by the corporate world – 1,410 unnecessary pages printed by the average employee every year, to be precise. Now, the WWF is tackling the problem with the most ingenious solution yet: A file format.

The new .wwf format is essentially a PDF that cannot be printed. The free installer is currently only available for Mac OS, but a PC version is coming soon. And even though the format has only been around for four days, three large international companies have already adopted it.

While the Save as WWF, Save a Tree campaign is clearly no panacea for the wasteful ills of corporate offices, it’s still a clever awareness prompt and a conversation piece that will, at the very least, attach a little bit more prophylactic guilt to the Print button.

GOOD via @tippytippens

Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a curated inventory of miscellaneous interestingness. She writes for Wired UK, GOOD Magazine, Design Observer and Huffington Post, and spends a shameful amount of time on Twitter.