E-Billing: Maybe Not so Environmentally Friendly
Tuesday, 27 September 2011 14:22
Recently, I received an interesting piece of mail. It was a promotion from Kohl’s with an invitation to sign up for its online bill pay service. On the back of the envelope, centered and in large bold type, were the words “Go green. Get $10.”
Join us in our mission to protect the environment! Sign up for paperless statements at My Kohl’s Charge and, as a special thank you, we’ll email you a $10 gift good toward your next in-store purchase.
At the bottom was printed:
KOHL’S Cares
Advancing Environmental Solutions
I would beg to differ. With all the talk about e-billing, people have been looking more closely into the environmental impact of electronic versus paper billing, and the conclusions do not support the contention that e-billing is greener. In fact, in the United Kingdom, Two Sides actually brought suit against a large utility company for making such statements on grounds of that it was greenwashing and violating regulations on truth in marketing.
Just because you can’t see the environmental impact in your hands doesn’t mean it’s not there. Electronic billing (and all electronic media) draw their power from massive data centers. In the United States, data centers purchase 1.5% of the total purchased energy. Compare this to the pulp and paper industry, which purchases half as much — .7%. In addition, data centers use more than 90% fossil fuels purchased off the grid, while 60% of the energy used to make paper in the U.S. is produced on site at mills.
The more I learn about the issues related to sustainability, the more frustrated I become with the claims that electronic media are greener than print. It reminds me of that old adage we tell our children: just because somebody says it doesn’t make it true. It’s not true on the playground and it’s not true in marketing and advertising . . . no matter how big the company making the claim or how often you read it.
