Green Money: How To Decrease Your Financial Footprint

Did you know that the majority of Americans do their monthly banking by snail mail? Sure we're proficient with plastic, but when it comes to those routine bills (housing, electricity, cable, etc.), paper checks reign supreme. According to a 2007 study from the Federal Reserve, Americans are more likely to pay household bills with a handwritten check, sealed in an envelope and stamped with 39 cents (or is it 41 these days?).

This is silly. Not only is the paper check inefficient, it's also a poor deal for the environment. Consider the trees milled, water wasted, energy expended and ink produced to create checks, checkbooks, paper statements, invoices and payment confirmation letters. It adds up to a lot of squandered resources.

The frequency with which we receive paper bills is illusory. Daily influxes of bright-white billing envelopes can lead us to believe paper bills suddenly appear--inconsequently--in our mailboxes, but every paper bill must be produced, transported by plane, train or United States Postal Service delivery truck--chocking up serious damage in fuel emissions. A recent study vetted by the Environmental Protection Agency claims the paper billing routine requires more than 674 million gallons of fuel a year. That's an eventual 3.6 million TONS of greenhouse gas!

Electronic bill payment is more than just a planetary mitzvah. It's also ingenious security against identity theft. Experts have long warned against mailing sensitive financial documents. Most banks concur that online transactions are safer than offline billing methods. According to a Javelin Strategy and Research study, almost 85 percent of identity theft cases are due to paper-related issues such as lost checkbooks and stolen bills, statements and check payments. With electronic transactions, however, sticky-fingered banditos won't even have the chance to view your stats, let alone engineer a heist.

So slay the raging paper beast, and take control of the clutter piling up on your desk. Make the digital switch. To learn more about all the issues surrounding electronic bill payment, as well as to calculate your financial footprint, visit PayitGreen.org.

Follow Olivia Zaleski on Twitter: www.twitter.com/oliviazaleski

Comments

[Ajita]

Great post as always, Ms Zaleski. Have you considered writing about the environmental damage that results from the thousands of square miles of natural habitat that is destroyed to make and maintain golf courses?

[OliviaZ]

Hi Ajita,
Thank you so much for the kind remarks. I haven't considered writing about this topic yet. Sounds intriguing. Do you know where I can find more information? Please tell me more.

Thank you for your comment.
Sincerely,
Olivia Zaleski

[calluna]

There's a lot to be said for paperless billing, but let's not kid ourselves that it's a totally "green" choice. Computers are made of plastics and increasingly rare (and sometime toxic) metals; they have to be shipped long distances; they use energy and in doing so increase carbon emissions; a great many end up in landfills at the end of their useful life.

Plus, there is a psychological aspect. One of the reasons consumer debt has risen so high in recent years is the ease with which we can now use credit cards; by not using as much cash, we forget that we are spending real money. I think the same thing occurs when you choose paperless billing. You aren't receiving a tangible piece of paper in the mail to let you know you owe an amount of money, you aren't physically writing out a paper check, you aren't subtracting it from your balance, and you aren't putting a stamp on it an putting it in the box. Those are all clues that you are, in fact, spending real money.

[maddogbitesback]

The amount of energy wasted on needless stuff is scary. I do without a lot of stuff and keep getting richer doing it. I turn the saved money into upgrading things like windows and so on. It all pays baack over time and then I am making again. My energy efficient regrigerator has paid for itself twice. My microwave saves abundle. But all my saving will not make up for the fact that the population is growing. More people are without clean water to-day than the world's population a little more than a year ago. What we need is smart laws which reward people for having one or two children. Instead, various religions actually want huge families regardless of the emotional cost or the economic cost to the country.

[Henry]

You can mow your yard with sweat equity, a source of capital that that's not monetized.

http://www.ecomowers.com/eco_mowers_reel_push_environmental_s/24.htm?gclid=COa-0NaEyZICFScvagodGRC67g

[stlswest]

I wish I had a lawn so I could buy one of those. Green = Common Sense.