Introducing the Invoice Carbon Footprint Index Dashboard

No longer will companies wonder about the environmental impact of their invoicing process. Basware’s new invoice carbon footprint index dashboard allows companies to follow their CO2 index and benchmark against others in the Basware community.

With the atmosphere’s current carbon dioxide level hovering around 413 parts per million (ppm), companies are recognising their impact on the environment and looking for ways to adopt sustainable business practices. Through the powers of technology and invoice automation, organisations can now track their CO2 index.

Out with Paper

When paper reaches the end of its life cycle, it’s sent off to a landfill or incinerated, thus producing greenhouse gases like CO2 as it breaks down. When we produce and dispose of these paper products at a faster pace than the plants and trees can consume the CO2, we create an overabundance of CO2 in our atmosphere.

Take a look around your office. If you’re still receiving paper invoices by mail or getting a PDF invoice by email, printing it out, and then re-entering the information by hand into your accounting system, there’s a better way to improve your processes and help reduce your carbon footprint.

Basware Powered Purchase-to-Pay Processes Cut Carbon Significantly

The answer is automation—electronic purchase to pay (P2P) services are a clear winner over paper-based, manual processes. To learn just how much digitising finance and procurement can help with sustainability, Basware teamed up with sustainability consulting agency 3keel to complete a CO2 emission study of Basware and to analyse scientific and industry reports on how kicking the paper habit affects climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Just think about how much your company could decrease its own carbon footprint through adopting sustainably solutions like e-invoicing, S2P automation, and a holistic digitisation of your organisation’s processes. The more businesses that think this way, the less affect we’ll have on increasing CO2.

How to Make a Difference with Digital Purchase to Pay

First and foremost, the obvious answer is the more automated your processes are, the less paper that is required to support your business.  

• Get rid of an over-reliance of paper and reduce your contribution to CO2 emissions, while reaping the benefits of cost savings and efficiency.

Secondly, like stated earlier, the largest source of human-induced CO2 emissions comes from using coal, oil, gasoline, diesel. So, start considering how a digital workplace can enable other sustainable business practices:  

• A digital process means you can encourage remote work. Working from home decreases emissions from one of the costliest contributors of the carbon problem—transportation. Every gallon of fuel burned creates about 20 pounds (or 9 kilograms) of carbon dioxide.

• Cloud computing means less infrastructure is required to power your business from a hardware and IT perspective. So that means fewer servers and less equipment are needed, decreasing CO2 emissions produced from those items.

• Efficient procurement processes enable bundled orders and shipments, meaning less pollution from fewer deliveries and less packaging materials needed.

• Connecting to a business network means you can identify new sustainable suppliers and source goods and materials from companies that share your values.

• Funding for other sustainability measures can be generated from the cost savings you realise with going digital.

So, it’s not only about the paper, it’s about an overall more efficient way of operating. The less working hours you spend on the P2P process, the less energy you need, leading to less emissions.

How Does the CO2 Dashboard Work?

As part of the Basware Analytics KPI overview dashboard, the carbon footprint index is calculated based on the environmental impact of different invoice receiving methods.  Companies can follow the development of their own CO2 index over time, as well as benchmark against the average carbon footprint within the Basware community. The dashboard also estimates how many trees, or how much water, you have saved or can save if you onboard more suppliers to e-invoicing. Companies can also view improvement potential per month.

Why Basware Offers the Most Sustainable Solution

The majority of Basware’s emissions savings come from our digital invoice handling solutions. Basware solutions offer buyers and suppliers more ways to send and receive their invoices in formats that works for them—exponentially growing adoption rates for both parties. And when there’s no supplier cost or change required on their end, it’s even easier for suppliers to make the switch to digital.

This means we make it easier for you to quit paper, automate more of your process, and adhere to sustainable business practices. You realise significant efficiency gains and cost savings, a more organised AP department, less errors, and overall operational improvement. Going digital saves both time and money – manual processing can cost anywhere from $3-7 (€2-6) per invoice.

Ready to learn more?

Basware is dedicated to finding more sustainable ways for customers to perform business. Learn more in our “Save Money, Save Trees” e-Invoicing Infographic or by reading any of the following ways we make sending and receiving electronic invoices a feasible way to reduce CO2 emissions:  

• SmartPDF 

• CloudScan 

• Invoice to Cash (I2C)

• PDF e-Invoice Sending and Receiving

• PDF e-Orders

• Invoice Archiving with Basware Vault