[LINK] Greenhouse contribution of letters

[Rick Welykochy]

Craig Sanders wrote:

> another factor to consider is: what are the unintended consequences of
> providing your email address to your bank or other company?
> 
> my bank, and most of my recurring bills (electricity, gas, phone, etc)
> have an option for me to provide an email address to get my invoice via
> email. i have declined to provide one in every case because i know that
> if I provide it, they will at some point decide that they have the right
> to spam me. 

I believe they offer this facility for a simpler reason: externalising
costs. Was is a Westpac ad the other that mentioned the bank did not have
to print about 5,000,000 statements last year because of this "service" ?

What Westpac has done is saved a not inconsiderable amount of infrastructure
and resources (esp. money, postage and staff time) by externalising the
cost of printing statements.

Their claims of being "greener" for doing this fall on jaundiced ears. What
do they think the customer does with the statement once it is received by
email? It is, of course, printed out and filed. Firing up a home printer,
getting it to work, alleviating jams, etc. multiplied by 5,000,000
such attempts implies that the net result is:

(*) more paper wastage (since home printers do jam)

(*) more electrical power consumed - printing a batch of 100,000 statements
     is going to be far more energy efficient than 100,000 individual
     customers firing up a home printer and doing the same once each

(*) the customer ends up paying for Westpac's previous printing costs

(*) Westpac saves $$$ on postage and handling. Add up 100,000 x each
     individual's time spent on receiving and successfully printing their
     statement. Add to that the many individuals who will not succeed
     and require a call to the help desk for instructions.

What a brilliant "green" sounding scam. Only it ain't that brilliant,
since anyone with 1/2 a brain can see through it, and it definitely
is not green.

I for one enjoy receiving printed invoices and statements. They go straight
into the filing cabinet ready for year end accounting.

As for printing emails? Not this cadet. I doubt I've ever printed an email.
Heck, I haven't owned a printer since 1995.

On another similar note. Have you ever tried to deal with a fax addict?
I have many times. I point out that I am a paperless office. And that it
makes no sense to do the following:

   1. Digitally prepare a document on a computer

   2. Print the document.  DING! paper wastage.  DING! analogue conversion

   3. Fax the document.   DING! resource wastage!  DING! loss of precision

   4. Receive the fax.    DING! resource and paper wastage!  DING! loss of clarity

   5. Read the fax and key (some of) it back into a computer.  DING! time wastage and digital conversion.

Compare that to the following paperless faxless scenario, one I always
insist on, sometimes to groans and moans.

   1. Digitally prepare a document on a computer

   2. Email the document

   3. Receive the document. Done.

No analogue conversion. No possibility of error during conversion. No resources wasted.
No fax software. No fax hardware. No extra phone line.


cheers
rickw

-- 
________________________________________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services || Internet Driving Instructor

The best way to accelerate a PC is 9.8 m/s2
      -- anon