Going Green
In recent years, the "goodwill" factor of going green has gone from "nice-to-have" to being an indicator of respectability. Today businesses are under pressure to show progress in their environmental policies. A recent national survey concluded that going green is no longer just the right thing to do, but also has a positive impact on a company's bottom line.

One of the easiest ways to build customer confidence is by proactively adressing your company's impact on the environment. Email billing can help businesses reduce paper output and reduce billing costs, while complying  with green regulations.

A great number of billers and financial institutions have invested in electronic billing without succeeding in turning off paper billing. Many customers who pay electronically or via automatic debit still receive paper bills and statements. Surprisingly, this includes a large percentage of online bill pay customers.

Kermit was right: It's not easy being green (US Green Business Guide, UK Environmental Regulations).

There are many ways to "go green", however, the first policies introduced are likely to be the ones that are easiest to implement, while providing the most Return on Investment (ROI). eBilling (converting high-volume paper documents to secure, encrypted emails) falls into the category of environmental policies that are also financially advantageous for a company.

Strong financial incentives for eBilling

For industries whose business model involves regular communication with customers, one of the most cost effective and convenient ways to reduce their carbon footprint is by aggressively turning off paper from billing, invoices, and monthly statements. Banks, utilities, telecommunications, and insurance companies are amongst the most prominent industries leading this trend. Paperless ebilling is the ultimate win-win environmental policy.

Although it is becoming more common to pay bills, either through a bank's Bill Pay  service, or at the biller's own website, the primary driver of electronic billing, being paper suppression, is not being realized. The majority of consumers, over 95%, still receive almost all of their bills in paper form.

Moving to the correct ebilling platform lets delivers almost immediate ROI. The upfront costs are negligible, while immediate savings are achieved by eliminating paper, printing and postage costs. An ebilling channel is the digital equivalent of sending bills to either an internal or external printing facility. The cost savings are per email, so the more you send, the more you save.

Solid consumer support for eBilling

With 94% of Americans indicating that they are willing to make lifestyle changes to help reduce environmental impact, consumers are proven to be highly responsive to environmental initiatives.

In the US, the Electronic Payments Association and Javelin Strategy & Research have been promoting ebilling as a way 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.

With nearly 80% internet penetration in the U.S. alone, the market is poised to accept ebilling as the standard way to receive bills. Paperless billing is a reality that many of us are likely to see happen in our lifetime.

Realizing the paperless reality

Making this reality happen is a process that depends on both consumers and billers.

Consumers have demonstrated a high comfort level with email and a rising willingness to make online payments within branded, trusted online environments. What consumers have not demonstrated is a willingness to chase after their bills.

Yet, this is exactly what billers seem to expect when they build an online payment site, without a sound, proven strategy on how to get customers to visit and pay their bills.

Not surprising then, that paper turn off rates for customers signing up to view and pay their bills at biller web sites, rarely rise above 1% per year. This is by all standards a failure.  Many of our clients are billers who have tried this first. However, with government, consumers and investors now scrutinizing your carbon footprint, there's no need to settle for such low adoption rates.

eBilling is just one example of how environmentally correct policies can be profitable. It all comes down to picking an ebilling strategy that drives user adoption.