Corporate Culture...

I was an early adopter of online payment services, so I’m excited that more and more people are switching over to paperless billing for their banking statements, credit card payments and utility bills. Back in 2000, I decided to try an online back and I’ve never looked back. The convenience and ease with which I can check my balance, reduce clutter and safeguard my accounts were my chief reasons for going paperless. But of course it turns out that e-banking is also much greener than regular banking.

PayItGreen is a coalition of financial services companies including Citibank, Bank of America and Capital One, that advocates paperless billing and online banking for the aggregate environmental impact. So say you go paperless—you’re only saving a couple dozen sheets of paper in one year, right? So what’s the big deal?

According to Dove Consulting, 19 billion bills, totaling 533 million pounds of paper were delivered to American households in 2006. Delivery required nearly 235 million gallons of fossil fuels and created more than 1.3 million tons of CO2 emissions. There are also uncalculated costs to our waterways from all of this deforestation and pollution. So if we could reduce these numbers even just by 20%, we’d have a significant positive effect on the environment!

And if you add to that the time you save by carrying out online transactions, (2.5 minutes per bill!) the money you save on postage, and the benefits of more immediate access to your account (less fraud and identity theft)—paying it green is good for everyone’s—even Mother Nature’s accounts.