How Businesses Are Supporting Sustainability Goals Using eSignature

Customers are becoming more particular about the companies they support, favoring businesses that share their environmental and sustainability values. A recent study highlighted how more than 63 percent of consumers have changed their shopping habits to align with their views, while more than one-third of respondents said they would pay more for sustainable products and services.

Docusign shares its customers’ environmental priorities. Since 2003, we’ve helped hundreds of millions of people around the world replace more than 55 billion sheets of paper with digital processes. That’s just the beginning. Also saved were 5.9 billion gallons of water needed to make that much paper, as well as more than 326 million pounds of waste. And because that paper wasn’t made, our planet was spared more than 4.7 billion pounds of additional carbon dioxide equivalent.

You can feel good about working with Docusign because we care about sustainable business practices. We’re committed to helping organizations realize productivity and efficiency gains while reducing their environmental impact. Many businesses like yours use Docusign to achieve their digital transformation and sustainability goals. For the past 10 years, we’ve helped hundreds of millions of organizations around the world replace paper with digital processes.

Be smart about your paper use: 

• Use recycled or forest-certified paper

• Before printing, ask yourself whether it's necessary

• If you print, use two sides, reduce margins and font size

• When you're discarding paper, recycle

To help you save even more, here are two helpful links: the Environmental Paper Network’s Paper Purchasing Guide and Paper Reduction Guide.

To inspire you to keep finding ways to replace paper with digital processes, here are some examples of how other Docusign customers are contributing to their organizations' sustainability efforts.

Saving time and trees

The City of Louisville, Kentucky—perhaps best known for being home to the Kentucky Derby and Muhammad Ali—has been recognized for its environmental leadership. The A ranking on a Carbon Disclosure Report assessment underscores the Louisville Metro Government’s commitment to protecting the environment through several initiatives.

As part of those efforts, its information systems analyst Tracy Meiners holds monthly Docusign user group meetings to share tips and tricks to showcase the environmental impact of using the tool. Through its paper-free by ‘23 initiative, the city saved nearly three million sheets of paper—the equivalent of 345 trees and nearly two dozen cars’ worth of greenhouse gasses by switching to electronic signatures.

“The opportunity to integrate Docusign with enterprise applications is going to be a big game changer for everyone,” said Louisville Metro’s deputy director Ken Hillebrand. “I think we're going to keep finding new ways to use the tool to improve our processes. There are a lot of untapped applications we just haven't discovered yet.”

Growing with Docusign

From electric vehicles to solar and wind renewables, copper is at the heart of the energy transition. Headquartered in Germany, Wieland is one of the world’s largest suppliers of semi-finished copper and copper alloy products.

The company is working to conserve resources and contribute toward a cleaner future throughout its value chain. The efforts it’s making at times go beyond regulations and laws; Weiland has set ambitious environmental, social and governance goals in a push to help create a more sustainable economy.

In 2021, the company established a Digital Transformation Unit to oversee company-wide transformation initiatives, including digitizing administrative processes, customer touchpoints and manufacturing.

Weilands’ manager of digital transformation Michael Krupa hailed Docusign as a key enabler for digitization, explaining that the greatest value of integrating eSignature with SAP Signature Management is efficiency and risk reduction gained by transforming everyday processes into a digital workflow.

“It’s not just a signature tool—it’s a workflow solution that automates the entire contract process from start to finish,” Krupka said. “Docusign not only accelerates time-to-signature, it streamlines the entire contract flow for increased efficiency, cost and time savings.”

Improving customer service with Docusign

Metha Energia is shaking up the energy sector in Brazil. They use technology and design to innovate by operating as a shared energy service. Through distributed generation, they connect clean energy generation plants to the final consumer. Through a fully digital platform, they provide consumers with savings and access to clean and sustainable energy. They’re growing rapidly; they currently have more than 75,000 customers and are soon expanding to five other Brazilian states. 

That’s how Metha discovered the Docusign Click solution, which turned out to be a gamechanger.

Metha implemented Docusign Click on its website via API, so providing consent to the agreement is now simply another step in the online registration process. As a result, users now have a seamless web experience without the friction or confusion common with email exchanges and validation processes. Similar to familiar e-commerce transactions, the entire registration process cannow be completed on Metha’s site.

Since Click was adopted, Metha has increased customer acquisition by 36 percent.

“Docusign not only helps traditional companies digitize, but also new, technological and innovative companies evolve faster,” said Metha’s head of marketing and growth Fábio Teixeira. “Docusign Click played a key role in our operational improvement and will greatly help us moving forward with our expansion plans.

“Furthermore, as a sustainable energy company, we feel good working with a company like Docusign that is committed to helping companies realize productivity and efficiency gains in their businesses while reducing their impact on the environment. Our missions are aligned.”

For more information about how your business can become more sustainable, check out these related blogs:

• 3 Critical Considerations for Building a Sustainable Business

• It’s Not Too Late for Climate Action

To start your sustainability journey with Docusign, learn more about how you could use eSignature or sign up for a free 30-day trial.