Think Before You Print

Recently, my wife and I have been evaluating what impact our waste is having on our planet. We were shocked and disappointed in ourselves. Up until this analysis, our daily regimen was insensitive to our impact. This daily regimen included:

• Taking long showers
• Throwing our clutter in the trash
• Not recycling anything
• Leaving lights on
• Wasting food

That's just a few of the things we were doing that was having a devastating impact on our planet. Therefore, we have been on a journey to correct the sins of our past and focus on what we can do going forward. Over the past several weeks, we've made some progress. However, it's been painful. Changing one's daily regimen was not as easy as we thought. Yet, we both feel it's the right thing to do.

Given the errors of our ways, I can say that I've always been one of those individuals who dare I say "despises" paper. My colleagues know this all too well here at Vantage. Every time someone gives me a piece of paper, I'm now burdened with the responsibility to do something with it. It's an obligation that I would prefer not to have. Today, if you were to come inside my office one thing you would not see are file drawers. Why? Drawers contain paper. If I have a drawer, the natural tendency is to put paper in it. Then, I'm now burdened with the responsibility of keeping track of this paper. What's on that paper? Is it important information? If so, then now I have to put a lock on this drawer. Now, I've got a key that I'm responsible for. BTW - I've been known to misplace keys and on a couple of occasions; I've lost them. Now, to organize this paper, I need to have file folders. Now, there's paper to organize the paper. As you can see, paper (to me) opens up a pandara's box that I can't handle. So, my solution was not to reduce my paper intake. I decided to go "cold turkey" and just eliminate it all together. Let me tell you this; it's been a tough and arduous journey but I finally feel like I'm making the turn. I have been able to eradicate piles of papers. I still have a few on my desk at any one point but it's not my fault. Someone put them there.

My mission to eradicate paper is not just with me. My colleagues here at the credit union are starting to catch on. We utilizing technology more and we're starting to make some dents. However, there is one particular area where I think along with your help; together, we can make a HUGE positive impact on our environment.

Every month, we send out paper statements. Every month we print hundreds of thousands of pages per month. The impact this has on our environment is astounding. I won't share the gory details. However, I started doing some "what-if" scenarios that I thought I would share. If we reduced our printed statements by 50% each month the impact would be as follows:

Environmental Impact

• 3360 pounds of paper per month
• 32,047 gallons of wastewater prevented
• 1086.4 gallons of gas saved by not mailing your statements

That's per month folks! How can we save this paper? Several thousand of our members are already doing this by electing to receive their statements in electronic format each month. Right now, we have over 22,000 members who use our online banking system. Just a little over 8,000 of those folks receive e-Statements. If we could just could get more members doing this, the impact will be real and immediate. Receiving e-statements is also more convenient. For example, right now it takes between 3-5 business days to get our statements printed in mailed. On the average, statements usually arrive between the 5th and 7th of each month. Members who receive their e-statements get their statements on the first day of the following month. They don't have to wait for the snail mail statements. On April 13th, we're going to be rolling out a new online banking system. This online banking system is a state-of-the-art system. The folks who have been testing this system have raved about it. I've done a couple of screencasts on this. When you enroll in the new system, the system will automatically enroll you to receive your statements electronically. Some members have expressed concern about this. If, by some chance, you still would like to receive your statements through the mail, you'll be able to. However, to sweeten the pot, when you log into the new system, not only will see get future statements electronically but you will automatically see your past statements in there too. Additionally, not printing statements will save your credit union money. We have got some incredible innovations that will be coming your way this year. Savings that we can get in other areas enables us to invest in these types of innovations.  Overall, I believe this is a win-win for all.

Finally, regardless on where you stand on "going green," there are some things that we all can do that can make a huge impact on our environment. Perhaps, the easiest is....."Think Before You Print"

Cam