Submitted: The Two Sides Team August 21, 2012
Dont get Two Sides wrong; this is how they feel about e-billing and e-invoicing.August 20, 2012
A short while ago we mentioned a study by Two Sides that shows the greenwashing argument is ill substantiated (to say the least). The article led to some comments, a few phone calls and quite some e-mails from e-invoicing and e-billing stakeholders.
The main message was: Why on earth are you promoting paper invoices in a community that promotes digitalisation? Well, the answer is we want to bring you some new perspectives every now and then. Just like we do on standards, pdf and adoption. And theres more where that came from.
To be honest, we actually like Two Sides work. They provide us/you with these extra shades of grey we need to understand and seduce end-users to switch to e-invoicing and e-billing.
Dont get Two Sides wrong; this is how they feel about e-billing and e-invoicing:
In this article Two Sides responds to comments on their study using Life Cycle Assessments (which is mandatory by the US FTC Green Guides if you want to make green claims in the US, by the way). Their goal is to encourage companies to compare electronic communications to paper-based communications using Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) so that their communication choices are based on sound scientific evidence. LCAs are best used in specific situations and the results of one study should not be used to generalize for all situations. This is one of the basic rules of life cycle evaluation and of environmental marketing when it comes to using LCA results.
Preferably LCAs need to follow recognised standards and be peer-reviewed by an expert panel, as recommended by ISO (International Standardization Organization).