Have you considered how a simple change like switching your business card to digital could make your work more sustainable? Business cards might seem harmless, but the traditional kind contributes to deforestation and plastic waste. What if you went paperless instead? Switching to digital business cards can make your work more sustainable.
Traditional paper cards harm the environment. Digital cards prevent deforestation and plastic waste. Explore affordable apps that let you share contacts digitally and do your part for the planet.
- Paperless Cards Save the Environment
Traditional paper business cards lead to cutting many trees over time. Digital alternatives help prevent deforestation. Apps let you instantly share contacts right from your phone. No paper cuts trees to make the cards. It also saves printer ink and prevents waste from being thrown out of cards. The best part is that digital cards cost less!
- Ditch Plastic With Virtual Cards
Plastic business cards seem convenient but come at a huge ecological cost. Plastics are made from fossil fuel feedstocks, emitting greenhouse gasses. The average plastic business card requires 10 grams of petroleum byproducts to manufacture. When discarded, these non-biodegradable plastics stick around for up to 1,000 years in landfills or, worse, as ocean pollution.
Opting for digital alternatives over physical plastic swipe cards eliminates this plastic burden. Going paperless, in the case of business cards, is an easy lifestyle change anyone can adopt to prevent more plastic waste from being created unnecessarily.
- Eco-friendly Online Sharing
Paper cards require handing out individual cards or bringing bulky card holders. The Mobilo Digital business card enables quick sharing with entire groups at once. For example, you can email your digital card directly after events or meetings instead of collecting and entering cards. Some apps share via social media, texts, websites, and more. It expands your networking easily!
The lifecycle process to create paper products like business is highly energy-intensive. First, harvesting trees, then chipping wood into pulp, then industrial machining to make paper, and printing inked cards consumes electricity and fuel at every step.
Plastic manufacturing is equally energy-draining, as fossil fuels are distilled into polymers, and additives are molded and treated under high temperatures. American plastic card facilities spend over 50 million kWh annually on operations.
Using online business cards curtails these environmentally taxing physical production lines, saving immense amounts of electricity, coal, oil, and gas reserves.
With paper business cards, the resource expenditure does not end at energy usage. Paper production utilizes up to 100 liters of water to manufacture just 1 kilogram. Effluent discharges also chemically contaminate river ecosystems.
As the average paper card weighs around 5 grams, over 20 liters of freshwater gets used up per card made. That does not include the water utilized in harvesting, transporting, and processing wood. Digital business card option prevents this inflating water demand and aquatic pollution from paper manufacturing.
- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Our actions form our “carbon footprint.” It represents how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses we generate or use up. Printing paper or manufacturing plastic cards has a sizable carbon footprint from raw material sourcing, production emissions, supply chain transport, and post-use waste impacts.
Shifting away from physical cards to digital business cards can dramatically reduce your environmental carbon footprint. Ditching 100 cards avoids nearly 1 ton of carbon emissions, equal to the pollution from driving an average car 2,500 miles! Going paperless makes environmental sustainability easier, one e-card at a time.
From textile dyeing agents to bleaching chemicals, the card printing industry works with many hazardous compounds, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and heavy metal pigment inks. These dangerous chemicals pose environmental and health risks if mishandled.
Producing polymer resins and plasticizers for plastic card bodies also involves solvents, catalysts, and other reactive chemicals. By preceding physical cards, people can avoid contributing to this chemical contamination that threatens ecological health. So, take the green step with digital business cards.
- Go Green With Work Tools Too
Skipping paper cards is one way to “go green” and help the Earth. Apply to be waste-free to work tools, too. For example, share files and documents digitally over email instead of printing. Use reusable bags, bottles, and cups instead of disposable plastic. Turn off device chargers, lights, and AC when leaving. Ask your school or office to recycle more. Small steps make a big impact!
While paper decomposes better than plastics, millions of paper products like cards, flyers, and packaging end up in landfills annually.
Of course, non-biodegradable plastic cards lingered underground for centuries, leaching microplastic particles into soils and groundwater. By heading towards digital business cards instead, society can divert huge amounts of waste otherwise destined for landfills annually. This helps curb land pollution and dangerous landfill greenhouse emissions.
- No Transportation Procedure
Transporting bulk raw materials, paper reels, plastic pellets, printing inks, card laminates, waste scraps, and completed card orders across states or countries burns enormous amounts of diesel and gasoline. This leads to higher air pollution, smog, and global warming emissions from freight trucks, planes, and ships crisscrossing regions to produce cards ultimately used briefly and tossed away.
Digitized business card alternatives short-circuit this fuel-guzzling transport network, as online platforms distribute memberships, tickets, and more sans transportation environmental impacts.
- Save Money and the Environment
Printing professional design paper cards costs way more monthly and annually than digital. It is not only an environment-saving step but also saves you cash. Most virtual business card apps either have very cheap or free subscription plans. The paper and printing budget is best spent elsewhere.
Conclusion
You can support environmental sustainability by making the small switch to digital business cards. Help save trees from excessive paper use and prevent plastic waste from cardholders. Expand your professional network more easily while reducing your carbon footprint. With so many benefits, there is no reason not to start transforming your business card – and work practices – towards sustainability today with digital capabilities. The planet will thank you!
