Energie- en CO2-besparing door elektronisch factureren
report
The “e-Invoicing” project began in 2008 through an initiative from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (het ministerie van Economische Zaken – EZ). Concerned citizens wanted to know if in fact electronic invoicing uses more energy than paper invoicing. Several studies have been conducted abroad concerning the energy use of electronic invoicing. Despite a ignificant benefit shown for electronic invoicing in these international studies, this may not necessarily be the case for electronic invoicing in the Netherlands. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ) has asked TNO to carry out a comprehensive study of both the direct and indirect effects of energy usage and CO2 emissions of the transition from a situation with 100% paper invoicing to a situation with 100% e-invoicing. More specifically, this study will concentrate on Business-to- Government (B2G) invoicing using the programme igipoort (developed by Logius) as the medium that the government will use for receiving electronic invoices.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the product chains, ‘paper invoicing” and “digital invoicing’ has been conducted, such that the energy usage (in MJ) and the greenhouse gas emissions (measured in CO2 emissions equivalents) have been determined. The energy usage and greenhouse gas emission methodologies, not only include the direct emissions resulting from energy use but also the energy required to produce and handle and treat the wastes of the products (paper) and equipment (PC, trucks, etc.)
The analyses show that the paper invoicing has an energy use that is almost twice as great and a CO2 emission approximately 1.5 times as great as for digital invoicing. The savings from switching to digital invoicing are primarily achieved through the absence of envelopes. In the case of the complete automatic invoicing, savings are also made through savings in paper usage. These savings are barely affected by the increased use of electronics required for digital invoicing. Transport has a negligible impact on the total energy usage and CO2 emission.
In practice 30% of digital invoicing incidences are done without printing and with automatic payment. In the remaining 70% of the incidences the digital invoices are printed and are paid for manually using a PC. In the latter case double bookkeeping occurs (digital and hardcopy). With more opportunities for automatic payments and digital approval processes, the energy use and CO2 emissions could decrease by as much as two-thirds. The 10 million invoices sent by businesses to the government (B2G) amount to energy savings of 3 TJ and almost 200 tonnes of CO2, which is comparable to the gas use of 55 Dutch households or the CO2 emissions of 20 Dutch residents. The relative magnitude of the results hardly changes when invoices contain 5 pages in stead of 1. The volume of sent B2G invoices is relatively small compared to the other types, especially the invoices sent from Business to Consumer (B2C). The total annual volume of invoices sent in the Netherlands is a factor 350 greater than those sent from B2G. Assuming that transitioning to e-invoicing has similar savings for all invoicing types – a seemingly conservative assumption – switching to digital invoicing for all invoicing types would have energy savings of pproximately 1 PJ and a CO2 emission savings of almost 70 ktonnes. In relative terms, this would be equivalent to the gas usage of 20,000 Dutch households of the CO2 emissions of 700 Dutch residents.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the product chains, ‘paper invoicing” and “digital invoicing’ has been conducted, such that the energy usage (in MJ) and the greenhouse gas emissions (measured in CO2 emissions equivalents) have been determined. The energy usage and greenhouse gas emission methodologies, not only include the direct emissions resulting from energy use but also the energy required to produce and handle and treat the wastes of the products (paper) and equipment (PC, trucks, etc.)
The analyses show that the paper invoicing has an energy use that is almost twice as great and a CO2 emission approximately 1.5 times as great as for digital invoicing. The savings from switching to digital invoicing are primarily achieved through the absence of envelopes. In the case of the complete automatic invoicing, savings are also made through savings in paper usage. These savings are barely affected by the increased use of electronics required for digital invoicing. Transport has a negligible impact on the total energy usage and CO2 emission.
In practice 30% of digital invoicing incidences are done without printing and with automatic payment. In the remaining 70% of the incidences the digital invoices are printed and are paid for manually using a PC. In the latter case double bookkeeping occurs (digital and hardcopy). With more opportunities for automatic payments and digital approval processes, the energy use and CO2 emissions could decrease by as much as two-thirds. The 10 million invoices sent by businesses to the government (B2G) amount to energy savings of 3 TJ and almost 200 tonnes of CO2, which is comparable to the gas use of 55 Dutch households or the CO2 emissions of 20 Dutch residents. The relative magnitude of the results hardly changes when invoices contain 5 pages in stead of 1. The volume of sent B2G invoices is relatively small compared to the other types, especially the invoices sent from Business to Consumer (B2C). The total annual volume of invoices sent in the Netherlands is a factor 350 greater than those sent from B2G. Assuming that transitioning to e-invoicing has similar savings for all invoicing types – a seemingly conservative assumption – switching to digital invoicing for all invoicing types would have energy savings of pproximately 1 PJ and a CO2 emission savings of almost 70 ktonnes. In relative terms, this would be equivalent to the gas usage of 20,000 Dutch households of the CO2 emissions of 700 Dutch residents.
TNO Identifier
360901
Publisher
TNO
Collation
34 p (incl bijl)
Place of publication
Delft
Files