Go The E-Billing Route, Help Curtail Greenhouse Effect
- Published on Friday, 06 July 2007 01:28
One of the most efficient and cost effective ways for businesses to play a practical, effective role in carbon reduction is to stop paper billing and adopt the electronic equivalent, e-billing.
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 200ppm (parts per million).
Today, that level has nearly doubled to 380ppm, 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 500ppm 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
Veronica Haupt, Head of e-billing sales at the Johannesburg office of international electronic secure e-mail and messaging specialist, Striata, said 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. They can do so by implementing electronic billing and turning off their paper stream of invoices and statements wherever possible.
“Environmental issues are becoming a major concern, to the point where the top-40 listed companies on the JSE are participating in a carbon disclosure project (CDP) which will help to establish exactly what impact business practices have on the environment,” said Haupt.
“There have been reports in local newspapers that international buyers have serious concerns about environmental impact, and South African companies that do not have a carbon neutral policy 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 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.”
Haupt added that carbon reporting will also increasingly influence investment decisions and some analysts believe large pension funds could move their funds out of carbon-inefficient investments into stocks that support a sustainable environment.
By converting a large proportion of paper-based communications to secure electronic communications, companies can achieve significant carbon credits.
Haupt pointed out that Lloyds Bank in the UK has identified a reduction in paper usage 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) in 15 million paper envelopes.
The bank estimated its paper bill production cost (including postage, but excluding costs such as rent, staff and power) amounted to 18p (R2.52) per bill. A target of 30% of the customer base could be converted to e-billing (an extremely conservative assumption).
“Lloyds, using the estimations and research provided by the US-based Environmental Defence organisation, established that the annual impact on the environment (limited to the bill 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 kilograms of solid waste produced and almost 11 million kilograms of gases emitted,” said Haupt.
“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 and already in Europe companies are given carbon credit rewards for doing so.
Haupt said the Electronic Payments Association and Javelin Strategy and Research in the US have been promoting online bill payment and online bill acceptance as ways for consumers to reduce carbon emissions and waste in landfills, and to save trees. Their research revealed that if every American household viewed and paid its bills electronically, it would reduce solid waste in US 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 among 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
While SA is not considered to be a large producer of carbon emissions in international terms, experts point out that its green status is poor when its carbon emissions are measured against its gross domestic product.
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.
Haupt said e-billing 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 e-billing, not only are costs reduced but the impact on the environment is dramatically curtailed.” Striata is passionate about reducing the challenges and costs associated with traditional communication. We understand the power and efficiency of electronic communication, from marketing and operational messages, to the delivery of confidential documents securely by e-mail. Striata specialises in the secure delivery and payment of bills, statements, payslips, invoices and all other confidential documents, via encrypted e-mail, and in maximising the adoption of electronic solutions.
"Our eDocument project has been a great success. Striata enabled us to go to market with a quality solution that is not only achieving our customer satisfaction goals, but is exceeding our goal to convert paper to electronic documents."