Over the last years, the digital post has emerged as a new and improved way of communication. For example, tens of thousands of companies and authorities send invoices, documents and receipts through digital post. It’s secure, accessible, eco-friendly, and it saves paper! In this blog, we will be talking about the fight towards carbon-neutrality and how every company can participate through sustainability; let's go!
Why should all companies take a good look and start immediate actions?
The effects of climate change are already reaching people across the world. Climate extremes such as drought, heatwaves, heavy rain and floods have become more frequent also in Europe while rising sea levels threaten coastal communities with flooding or erosion from high tides. Ocean acidification is another side-effect that contributes to a loss of biodiversity (the number of species) because it prevents calcifying marine organisms like oysters from forming shells on which they can live their lives.
Climate changes around the globe have had drastic consequences for many regions and populations: In addition to extreme weather conditions becoming increasingly common throughout Europe's continent, other troubling impacts include an increase in water scarcity due to droughts along with higher ocean surface temperatures leading up subtropical areas including Florida; these changes have also caused many species to migrate northward, leading to a decline in biodiversity.
The European Union is committed to an ambitious climate policy. Under the Green Deal, it aims to become the first continent that removes as many CO2 emissions as it produces by 2050. The proposed Climate Law could become formalised into law if the European Parliament and Council will approve it. As a result, the EU’s interim emission reduction target for 2030 would also be updated from the current 40% reduction to a more ambitious one.
On 7 October 2020, the European Parliament backed climate neutrality by 2050 and a 60% emission reduction target by 2030 compared to 1990 levels - more ambitious than the Commission’s proposal of 55%.
Additionally, they called for individual EU countries to become climate neutral and insisted that after 2050, more CO2 should be removed from the atmosphere than is emitted. Also, all direct or indirect subsidies to fossil fuels should be phased out by 2025 at the latest.
These are big targets that we all can impact with our own individual actions. Still, as leaders and business representatives, we carry higher responsibility to impact this change towards a carbon-neutral planet.
The digital post is one way to work towards sustainability, and a carbon-neutral planet, so let’s talk about how it works!
Paperless should be the only way towards the future
If we think about how we can impact this from a digital post perspective, we will find that more and more organisations want to focus and use paperless workflows. That's understandable because one of the significant impacts of climate is the emissions generated by logistics. Finnish Post (Posti) reported that during Q1 2021, they had delivered 107 million letters to households in Finland. Postnord reports that during 2020 they have delivered a whopping 2.6 billion letters and other items of mail in Nordics. Both of these companies are doing a brilliant job on their actions for being carbon-neutral by 2030. Still, as of today, the most significant emissions are generated from operations regarding logistics. Posti reported that in 2020, their emissions from vehicles were 48,173 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is down approximately 13 % year-on-year, which is good news.
Turning that 48,173 tonnes of carbon dioxide to a different perspective, we are talking about 194 840 511 km driven by an average car. Or 111,531 barrels of oil consumed in a year.
We present a question to Nordic companies:
Would it be better for us to convert our letters, invoice and mailing distribution as much as possible to digital channels like the digital post? - We think the simple answer is yes.
The truth is that we still send invoices, such as invoices from municipality services, homes, tax cards, and housing meetings. Unfortunately, all these paper invoices, cards, and documents create unnecessary emissions that could be delivered digitally in user-friendly form.
The digital post is a big part of what enables us to keep the world carbon neutral. The rise of email and other web-based tools have helped all companies send invoices, documents, receipts digitally instead of through paper made letters in an envelope at home. The paperless process helps create a sustainability revolution where affordable, secure and greener digital mail is sent by businesses worldwide as an alternative or supplement to traditional postal services that are costly for both.
With the digital post, all your documents are in one place, and you can make revisions as needed or handle invoice payments for yourself, or your loved ones. In addition, it’s more eco-friendly and secure than traditional mail because it saves money on paper use and logistics and is 100% accessible when connected digitally with a company.
Also, it's quicker. Much quicker. Once we digitalise the workflows to be paperless, we will see the most significant impact in the delivery chain: printing and logistics. The outcome will be that your customer will receive the information from you almost instantly.
Compare that with recent actions where traditional post-delivery days are extended under carbon-neutral action. The study made by Bionova for Posti calculates that with three delivery days, the carbon footprint would reduce as much as 40%. Sadly, these actions eventually affect customer service because deliveries from businesses to their customers are getting prolonged. With digitalised workflows, we can instantly deliver the content to our customers and keep our emissions minimum.
Digital post is a way to make all communication both more responsible and accessible
Digital post represents a sustainable way of communicating with businesses by creating a direct connection that's environmentally friendly and offers increased security. Many companies are striving to meet their climate goals, aiming for a 15-year time frame. But I believe that many companies will shorten their goal towards five years max within the next few years due to consumer purchases, leading to a sustainability revolution.
We have partnered with leading digital post vendors like Kivra and Posti to make every action towards your paperless world a success.
The digital post is a big part of what enables us to keep the world carbon neutral. Each business can revise its workflows and improve how to deliver digital experiences for its customers.
With the digital post, you can provide your customers with all your documents in digital form and stored in one place that your customers can easily access or handle invoice payments for themselves or loved ones. It's more eco-friendly and secure than traditional mail because it saves money on paper use and logistics and is 100% accessible when connected digitally.
Join us today for the sustainability revolution by letting us help you automate your digital workflows. We're here to guide you through every step of the process so that both you and your business can maximise efficiency while minimising the climate impact - and saving money on things like postage fees. Let's work together towards an environmentally friendly future.
Join the revolution!