The global green movement, driven by mainly young people in Europe, the UK and Australasia, offers some frightening statistics. Three hundred years ago (a miniscule period of time in the Earth's history) the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was just 200 ppm (parts per million).
Today that level has nearly doubled to 380 ppm and over the last 100 years global temperatures have risen by 1ºC. Scientists predict that unless the world co-operates and implements the Kyoto Protocol, carbon levels could reach 500 ppm by 2050 with an average global temperature rise of 3ºC, which will be a turning point for imbalances and snowballing seriously adverse impacts on our society.
Banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, utility service providers, telcos and other organisations with large monthly-billed customer bases can make a significant contribution to carbon emission reductions by implementing electronic billing and turning off their paper stream of invoices and statements wherever possible. Recently, the top-40 listed companies on the JSE participated in a carbon disclosure project (CDP) to establish exactly what impact business practices have on the environment.
There have been reports in local newspapers that international buyers have serious concerns about environmental impact and South African companies will find it more and more difficult to sell their products in world markets. The reports also say that South Africa's carbon dioxide production has more than doubled from 1980 and that local exporters are already being affected by large retailers in the UK and the EU which have implemented carbon labelling. Some EU retailers have begun calling for punitive trade measures to root out environmentally unsustainable production processes and force businesses into action to mitigate their impacts.
There have also been reports that carbon reporting will also increasingly influence investment decisions and some analysts believe that large pension funds could move their funds out of carbon-inefficient investments into stocks that support a sustainable environment.
How can eBilling help?
By converting a large proportion of paper-based communications to secure electronic communications, companies can achieve significant carbon credits.Lloyds Bank in the UK has identified paper use as one of its four key performance Indicators. The company has a retail customer base of around 17-million people and made some calculations based on the mailing each month of 15-million sheets of paper (bank statements) in15-million paper envelopes.
The bank estimated its paper eBill production cost (including postage, but excluding costs such as rent, staff and power) amounted to 18p (R2.52) per eBill. A maximum of 30% of the customer base could be converted to eBilling (an extremely conservative assumption).
Lloyds established that the annual impact on the environment (limited to the eBill production process, and excluding the delivery of bills) was 4,675 tons of paper used, 9,351 tons of trees destroyed, 306-million litres of water used, 4-million kgs of solid waste produced and almost 11-million kgs of gases emitted.
Based on these estimations, implementation of a secure electronic document delivery solution could result in bottom line savings of £16-million (about R224-million) over five years against set up fees of less than £150 000. Including licence fees, this would result in a return on investment in less than five months.
Apart from the obvious short-term benefits, there could be more significant long-term benefits for companies reducing their carbon outputs. In Europe, companies are already being given carbon credit rewards for doing so.
In the US, the Electronic Payments Association and Javelin Strategy & Research have been promoting online eBill payment and online eBill acceptance as ways for consumers to reduce carbon emissions, waste in landfills and to save trees. Their research revealed that if every American household viewed and paid its bills online, it would reduce solid waste in U.S. landfills by more than 800 000 tons a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.1 million tons.
American banks are actively promoting green consciousness amongst their customer bases by urging them to make payments online. A recent national survey established that 94% of Americans say they are willing to make changes in their lives to help the environment. The survey concluded that going green was no longer just the right thing to do, but is also seen as being very positive for a company's bottom line.
SA appears to be lagging in the global race to go green. In global terms, SA is not a large producer of carbon emissions but, measuring carbon emissions against gross domestic product, it has a dismal footprint. Pressure is mounting to improve that status and Johannesburg is one of 30 cities worldwide whose mayors are campaigning to encourage national governments to support city leaders in combating climate change.
eBilling is proving a fast, convenient and environmentally friendly payment option worldwide which achieves results. For every 38 500 bills produced, a ton of paper is used, two tons of trees are destroyed, 65 000 litres of water is used and 2 500kg of greenhouse gases are emitted. By implementing eBilling, not only are costs reduced but the impact on the environment is dramatically curtailed.
If you would like to calculate your personal carbon footprint, this is an interesting calculator.
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About Striata
Striata is the global leader in Secure eDocument Delivery.
Striata's Secure eDocument Delivery and Email Bill Presentment & Payment (EBPP) are solution sets - software applications and adoption methodologies - that deliver rapid reduction in operational costs, quicker payments and enhanced customer service by revolutionising the way bills, statements, contracts, policies, annual reports, payslips and other high volume system-generated documents are delivered and paid.
Unlike today's online presentment solutions, which insist on customers visiting and registering at a website, Striata’s complimentary solution (targeting customers still receiving paper) delivers feature-rich, registration-free, navigable and interactive secure email documents directly to their inbox and enables ‘one-click’ electronic payment without them having to visit a single web-page.
This innovative and strategic change from ‘pull’ to ‘push’ dramatically increases customer adoption of electronic communication, allowing Striata’s clients to achieve rapid ROI from their self-service and e-communication investments.
Visit Striata's Global Site.
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