Electronic letter is environmentally friendly
Itella/Tapio MustasaariAn electronic letter can produce half the amount of carbon emissions than a paper letter. The results are based on a research carried out by Itella Information, which compared the carbon dioxide emissions from the production and delivery of electronic letters and paper letters by iPost.
The carbon dioxide emissions from the production process of a fully electronic letter are approximately 40 per cent lower than those of a paper letter delivered in the traditional way. As the volume of electronic letters increases, however, the carbon emissions may be cut by nearly 90 per cent compared to paper letters.
The emissions resulting from the use of materials were nearly four times higher than the emissions caused by the infrastructure. Unfortunately the Finns are slightly behind in adopting electronic invoicing compared to some other European countries.
For the paper process, the carbon emissions for the processing, printing, enveloping and physical delivery of letters were evaluated. The calculations included the energy consumption of the servers, the paper, envelopes, printing and enveloping processes, air conditioning, power consumption of the working facilities, and the fuel and energy spent in the delivery process.
For the electronic process, the load resulting from the processing of electronic letters, the energy consumption of the servers, air conditioning and electronic delivery were considered. The research also took in to consideration the energy used for reading a single electronic letter on a home computer, as well as archiving a letter for a period of six years in the NetPosti -service. The evaluation was the first of its kind.
