Is the Overnight Envelope Anti-Green?

We’ve written about electronic signature and online contract execution as a green process previously and a recent article has us thinking about it again.

CNN/Money and Fortune recently published an article, entitled: “Is the overnight envelope anti-green?”

According to this overnight courier, they have networks to reduce the environmental impacts of their customers’ shipments. They even have a digital alternative, in which you can print from your desktop to a FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s) in the place where the print product is needed. This eliminates the plane trip. At least ONE way. We think this is a little silly. Of COURSE you can print things at a FedEx Office/Kinko’s! That is how they make money! What did they think you were going to do? Print it at home, then scan it at Kinko’s and print it again? No way, they get at least $.05 per page on the low end at $1.00 a page for the color print outs!

Does this eliminate the car trip to have the print product picked up or delivered? This incurs a carbon cost and doesn’t save time on the recipients’ end. What if they have to make an extra trip to pick up the print product? What if they have to be in a specific, physical location to sign for the envelope when it arrives the next day? What about the toner cartridges used? Electricity used to run those huge machines for the “7×24” that those stores are open.

No, this is not an example of a ‘green process’, but let’s not be too hard on them. Those who are not yet web-published and live in the online world still may need to make flyers, brochures, etc. However, don’t call that GREEN, just call it living in the ‘paper world’. Kind of like the newspapers do.

On the Green topic -CERTAINLY there would be no excuse for a person to send their document to FedEx Office/Kinko’s, use the gas to drive there, print it out on some nice paper, and pay for an overnight letter to ship it somewhere using trucks and planes! THAT would certainly be ‘anti-green’! Especially when you can do all this with DocuSign at a fraction of the time and cost.

Acellion, a provider of managed file transfer solutions that enable business users to quickly, easily and securely transfer digital information, commissioned a report by Ryerson, Masterson & Associates. They estimated that the avoided CO2 emissions from an average overnight envelope were 2.28lbs CO2*.

Think about it. What is the greenest way to sign your contracts and execute your documents? What about electronic signature and online contract execution services, like those offered by DocuSign?

To use DocuSign, all you need is internet connectivity and a web browser. This means you can sign and execute documents where ever you are. I’ve heard stories of contracts being signed from a ferry via blackberry. No extra trips needed and no need to be in a designated place to sign for papers.

Electronic signature and online contract execution is greener than overnight envelopes and faster as well.