How digital transformation will help save the planet (one email at a time)

Technology requires energy. With 4.1 million of us now being internet connected (and it will continue to grow) and with sources of that energy still being reliant on fossil fuels or ‘non-renewable’ if you prefer, the impact of that usage will continue to grow. We as a species are now so reliant on technology, whether work or leisure, it is only right that not only should a technology solution provide cost efficiencies or time reductions for a business but it should do so whilst minimising social and environmental impact (as part of a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR))

It was with great interest that I read Ecologi’s blog on “How much is the internet contributing to carbon emissions?” and I would encourage everyone here to do the same, however, it did get me thinking about the solutions and digital transformation services PacSol provide and how these could contribute to reducing impact. 

Here are just three reasons why a well planned, implemented, maintained and continuously improved digital transformation project can benefit the planet and your company’s shareholders!

Remove the paper – yes, I have gone straight in with the old classic case for document management and with good reason! By going digital, whilst energy use increases processing the digital document, there are environmental savings (energy and pollutant) made through the paper lifecycle that should offset that ‘cost’:

• Energy cost of document being transported to its final destination and storage
• Resource cost of the ink / energy to create the document
• Resource cost of manufacture and supply of the paper
• Resource cost to fell and transport the raw materials
• Environmental loss for each tree felled…

The UK government estimates just 100,000 sheets of A4 paper has a carbon footprint of 6,000kg and requires eight trees and 2,000kWh of energy – the same paper recycled seven times produces 3,200kg of carbon over its lifetime.

Automate the process – Reducing human touch points, emails sent, devices used and time spent per document will result in a cumulative saving of resources. If every user in the UK sent one less simple email per year, 16,433 tonnes of carbon could be saved annually. To put that into process perspective you could reduce interactions by:

• Automating the ingestion of digital documents.
• Have recognition and automated indexing configured to route documents quickly and efficiently.
• Have automated validation checks confirm data.
• Route documents based on index data to secondary processes or to approval queues.

Much like shipping multiple items in one go can reduce the overall cost per item, shifting processing away from individual devices to larger, optimised and centralised processes reduces the single item impact. Whilst the above is by no means an exhaustive list, by removing repetitive transactions such as email and by centralising data storage to avoid duplication in email or even the copy / transfer of files across systems, tonnes of carbon could be avoided!

Store only what is necessary (and only once) – when configuring a document management system / enterprise content management platform, the aim is to accurately store content, in a way that makes the item uniquely (and easily) identifiable, simple to access whilst securing against unwanted actions and ensuring that at the end of the object lifecycle, it is removed.

There is a ‘cost’ to storing an object and having duplications on servers, workstations, mail boxes, cloud drives etc will drive up the total energy consumption and potentially increase the material resource requirements of a business.

As highlighted in several previous blogs, digital transformation is about using technology to increase the efficiency of business processes, reduce financial / security / reputational risk and allow businesses and employees to realise their full potential. Whilst a digital world can have a negative impact on our world (Amazon shopping searches account for the equivalent of how many million cups of tea!?), with the right solution, there are gains to be made for both business, the human race and our planet.

So what changes can you make starting today?

Toby Gilbertson, Customer Services Manager. May 2022.

#PacSolUK #EnterpriseContentManagement #DocumentManagement #BusinessProcessAutomation #ClimateAction