How going digital is helping the environment?

June 17, 2022

We are living in a period of rapid technological changes including artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, and electric vehicles. These technological advancements create a growing opportunity to channel the developments for the utmost environmental and social impact. Despite the controversial opinions regarding the negative impact of digital technology, it has a role in making people’s lives more comfortable and sustainable.

Here is how digital technologies can help us save the planet.

Reducing pollution

While pollution is becoming a serious issue, technology can prevent the fast pace of the problems that we currently face as a community. For this reason, certain technologies are specifically designed to reduce air pollution and at the same time improve business performance, like recycling technologies that help create new materials from waste as well as cut manufacturing costs and prevent pollution overall.

Nothing can keep air pollution at bay like air purifiers. Purifying machines capture tiny particles like pollen and use carbon household fumes like volatile organic compounds. One of the most recent initiatives to prevent pollution is the creation of smog-free towers and artificial trees by different companies.

• Smog-free towers- smog in urban environments has become a real threat. While facing this urgent matter, one of the companies developed a tower that absorbs polluted air while emitting clean air. It is claimed that this tower cleans 3.5 million cubic meters of air per day.
• Artificial trees- The other technological advancement that might have a positive impact on our environment is the creation of artificial trees. Through the innovative and up-to-date system of water filtration, such trees might absorb pollution daily and give us only filtered pure oxygen.

Paperless Operations

Rainforests across the world are in great danger. In fact, 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year. It won’t come as a surprise that one of the biggest threats to forests today is paper, apart from other industrial agriculture production of commodities like Conflict Palm Oil, fabric, and logging. In fact, statistics published by the University of Southern Indiana say that:

• Americans use about 680 pounds of paper per person annually. This amounts to about, 85,000,000 tons of paper or 2,000,000,000 trees.
• The average American household throws away 13,000 pieces of paper each year, which means around 1 billion trees in total in the USA. Most paper waste is produced in the form of packaging and junk mail.

That is why by going digital we are indeed helping the environment. The biggest victory in recent years has been paperless operations. Fortunately, businesses and individuals are using less paper than in past years; thanks to computers, smartphones, and cloud storage. Many companies send bills, newsletters, as well as other communications over email rather than regular mail. This is helping to drastically reduce the amount of paper used in printing newsletters, magazines, and mails. Files are stored in the cloud, which is easily accessible, rather than in physical filing cabinets. People are more frequently taking notes and managing their schedules on their smartphones rather than on paper notebooks and calendars.

As businesses grew increasingly reliant on electronic communication, experts assume that the era of the paperless office is upon us. There are many benefits of going paperless. Up to 50% of business waste is paper, so by going digital businesses are greatly reducing their impact on the local landfill. Converting to a paperless office also supports earth-friendly efforts like water conservation. This is due to the fact that each sheet of paper takes an average of five liters of water to make. Several other benefits of going paperless include increased accessibility, increased security, and space savings. Other benefits are better customer service and improved productivity. Employee flexibility is another advantage. Fewer people in the office means less usage of energy. Virtual employees usually work from their own computers, reducing equipment needs. With this, people are also cutting on traveling, which reduces petrol consumption and helps the environment. Going paperless can also make people’s lives easier. With the apps for optimizing your workflow, organizing your documents, and even storing your family photos, not only are people helping the environment but are also living a more organized life.

There is no doubt that going digital is indeed helping the environment. Whether you choose to go digital to reduce pollution, decrease paper waste, or make your life more comfortable, it is something worth doing.