We believe that online invoicing, such as Onsharp's SmartPay
system, can have a significant, positive environmental impact.
But how much evidence is there for this claim? After all,
digital invoicing requires electricity.
Studies on the subject have been conducted, both by providers of
e-billing systems and by independent organizations.
One example is the comparative Life Cycle Assessment conducted
for Australian company Converga by Hatch Consulting. Comparing
Converga's 18-step paper system with online invoicing, the study
concluded that every million invoices processed digitally yielded a
savings of 800 tons of CO2 and 3200 trees. The
model included the storage and eventual destruction of the paper
invoices, as well as the multiple copies used, the transportation
of those copies hither and yon, and the resources involved in
producing them.
The Environmental Defense Fund supplied data for paperless
billing company Avolent, supplier to corporations such as Dell and
OfficeDepot, which suggested that their system was able to have a
cumulative impact equivalent to saving over a million trees, 300
million pounds of greenhouse gases, a billion gallons of
wastewater, and 100 million pounds of solid waste.
These are large numbers; smaller businesses
may think that their own impact will be insignificant. After all, a
company that sends out fifty or a hundred invoices a month won't
reach a million invoices for about a thousand years. Hearing that
the European Union as a whole could avoid using 2700 tons of ink
may not have much emotional impact on a company that just runs down
to the office supply store for a new ink cartridge every few
months.
But the use of paper in particular is
something about which we should all be concerned. Here are some
facts about paper use to think about:
- Paper production accounts for the majority of world wood
use.
- Paper production also uses large amounts of water and
electricity.
- Paper production requires the use of highly toxic chemicals,
including chlorine, identified by the Union of Concerned Scientists
as the most environmentally toxic common chemical.
- Paper makes up almost 40% of the solid waste stream
- The pulp and paper industry has one of the highest pollution
intensities of the 74 industrial sectors measured by the Toxic
Release Inventory Program of the EPA.
And, while we are inclined to think of an invoice as a single
sheet of paper, this is unrealistic.
Consider the elements of paper invoicing:
- Paper records of transactions are kept, possibly including
receipts, timelogs, manual tickets, etc.
- Copies of these records are made and submitted to different
departments and individuals for processing, transported in various
ways. The papers may be approved, copied, filed, and transported to
other departments.
- Statements are prepared, using paper, ink, and electricity.
Copies may be made at this point as well.
- Other papers, such as advertisements, may also be prepared at
this time to make the mailing of invoices more cost-effective.
Paper, ink, and electricity are used.
- Wastepaper is likely to be produced at any stage up to this
point.
- Statements are transported by mail, using envelopes and
postage.
- Statements are opened, and may be copied and filed at this
point as well. Copies may also be sent to other departments for
approval or further processing.
- Checks are written and mailed, using paper, ink, envelopes, and
postage. Checks may be cut with computers, using electricity as
well. More copies might be made and filed. Statements may be copied
and added to the check for mailing.
- Statements or copies of statements and any other papers up to
this point may be filed and then archived or destroyed at a later
time.
- Paper records of checks may be prepared and stored.
Using the Pay It Green
calculator allows individuals and businesses to calculate the
difference their own personal changes could make, expressed in
terms of trees planted and waste saved. For many, this more
concrete way of thinking about the advantages of electronic billing
could be more manageable, and a more accessible and therefore more
persuasive argument.
References:
Converga's Comparative LCA
BusinessGreen.com
Environmental
Impact of the Paper Industry
PayItGreen
environmental impact calculator
Toxic Release Inventory
Program