Technologies to help companies go green ♻️

Companies have a great environmental responsibility. All companies, whatever their activity, generate waste that seriously damages the environment. 

On the occasion of World Environment Day, celebrated every June 5, we have compiled the most efficient technologies that help companies in the conservation and protection of the planet. In this post we invite you to discover them and we propose some solutions adapted to companies. 

More than 250 companies generate more environmental damage than they generate profits

The environmental costs generated by more than 250 companies are higher than the gross operating profits obtained. This is according to the Impact Weighted Accounts (IWA) study conducted by Ronald Cohen and the Harvard Business School. 

Of the 1,800 companies studied, 15% would make a loss if the environmental damage they caused were taken into account, while 32%, i.e. more than 540 companies, would see their operating profits reduced by 25% or more. 

According to these calculations, industries such as airlines, paper and forest products, electrical utilities, building materials, containers and packaging would see more than a quarter of their profits wiped out. 

With the advent of transparency in the measurement and valuation of business impact, the objectives of companies and investors are changing. 

Sectors such as banking, which traditionally used large amounts of paper in its physical offices and in most of its communications with customers, are encouraging and developing new, more sustainable business models. Responsible environmental practices, such as reducing paper consumption, define green banking, a new concept of environmentally responsible banking in all its practices and business. 

Green banks are just one example of entities that every day are committed to change, evolving towards paperless systems and implementing measures to reduce their carbon footprint. 

Environmentally friendly technologies

1.- ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE: WORKING WITHOUT PAPER IS POSSIBLE

The number of socially responsible companies is growing worldwide. In the development of more sustainable business models, electronic signatures play an essential role. Paper consumption and its environmental impact has become one of the biggest problems in today's society. Companies, which are high consumers of paper, are making efforts to reduce and even eliminate paper consumption both in their offices and at their points of sale.  

In the process of migrating to a more sustainable workplace, paperless solutions such as electronic signature become environmentally friendly tools. 

But eliminating paper from signature processes does not mean having to give up legal certainty. In fact, the qualified electronic signature, the only one that equals the handwritten signature, offers real guarantees of authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation, which prevent the signer from easily denying its legal effects.

Thanks to Uanataca's signature solutions, not a single piece of paper is used during the entire document signing process. This means that companies can benefit from the advantages of working without paper: 

- Reduce environmental impact 
- Eliminate unnecessary expenses
- Increase productivity 
- Improve reputation 

2.- VIDEO ID: REDUCING MOVING TO REDUCE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT

The carbon footprint allows us to know what our environmental impact is. At an individual level we can reduce it, but companies and organizations have an essential role to play in terms of responsibility and capacity for action. In fact, their environmental impact is such that in some countries certain companies with specific characteristics are already obliged to calculate their carbon footprint.  

Avoiding moving is considered one of the main lines of action being taken by companies to reduce their carbon footprint. To this end, the mobility of workers and the transport of goods must be reduced or adapted.

The following example is an illustrative case of the impact of employee moving to the workplace: an employee traveling by car to his workplace, located 20 km from his home, emits 7.68 kg of CO2 eq. per day; the total monthly emissions per employee would be 192 kg of CO2 eq. per month. To get an idea, this would represent more than double the emissions produced by the average monthly consumption of electricity in a household (72.75 kg of CO2 eq).

Technology can contribute greatly to reducing travel and reducing the carbon footprint. This is the case of Video Identification, a system that allows remote identification of customers and employees in order to issue them their own qualified digital certificate 100% digitally, from any place and at any time. 

3.- XAAS: ECO-EFFICIENCY

The XaaS model is considered to be the evolution of cloud computing. The term refers to a growing number of services that are delivered over the Internet rather than on-premises. In short, XaaS is part of the nature of cloud computing.

One of the main advantages of the XaaS model is work optimization and cost savings. But it can also minimize the negative impact on the environment by reducing the number of computers in operation, energy consumption and, therefore, the carbon footprint. 

The most common offerings in the XaaS model are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Under the IaaS model, Uanataca has designed the Modern PKI as a Service: all the benefits of a PKI without worries or investment. The service provides a PKI to issue and manage the complete lifecycle of digital certificates using Uanataca's hardware and software infrastructure.

Many companies have equipment in their infrastructures that is often inefficient or used below capacity, wasting energy while idle.

Sharing resources is another element that influences the preservation of the environment. This is why many companies are opting for massive data centers and Infrastructure as a Service, sharing energy and refrigeration costs.

Benefits of environmentally responsible companies

Different organizations are promoting the creation of financial accounts that reflect the financial, social and environmental performance of a company. This provides a transparent view of a company's external impacts, allowing managers and investors to make decisions based on the impact, both positive and negative, of companies on the environment and society. 

There is a high correlation between companies that reduce negative impacts and their value:

- Stock market value increases 💰: investors increasingly value the corporate social responsibility of companies in their investment analyses. This translates into an increase in their stock market value. On the other hand, companies with a greater negative impact do not arouse as much interest among investors, reducing their stock market valuation and increasing their cost of capital. 

- Reputation improves and sales increase 🚀: customers will be able to align their purchasing choices with their values. 
Changing consumer habits and the commitment to the circular economy are shaping the way consumers make their decisions. Younger consumers are the most committed to the environment. Specifically, according to a study by GlobalWebindex, 6 out of 10 millennials say they are willing to pay more for sustainable and environmentally friendly products and services. 

- Increases employee productivity and improves talent attraction 🙋: companies' commitment to the environment is also a determining factor in attracting and retaining the best talent.  
Similarly, positive environmental practices also have a direct effect on employees. When they feel satisfied and committed to the company, their productivity increases. 

Ultimately, responsible companies, involved employees and conscious investors can reduce environmental impact. It is not a matter of generating isolated and individual actions, but of working globally with an integrated responsibility plan.