An eco-friendly alternative to business cards
Each year 100 billion business cards are produced worldwide leading to the potential loss of approaching 6 million trees. Perhaps more shocking is the fact that within a week after receiving a business card, almost 90% of them are thrown away. Some of these cards will be recycled, but many will find their way into landfill.
42% of wood harvested globally is used to make paper, often leading to deforestation and habitat destruction. The use of so many trees to make paper is of major concern since 50% of all terrestrial carbon is stored in trees – making them a crucial buffer to ward off climate change. Additionally, old-growth and older second-growth natural forests store significantly more carbon than newly-planted forests, and are often much more biodiverse than plantation-grown timber forests – often referred to as ‘Sustainable Forestry’.
These are thoughts that few of us will have when we add yet another business card to our collection.
Environmental impact of business cards
Paper production is one of the most resource-intensive and polluting of all manufacturing industries with emissions to the atmosphere and water courses including bleaches and dioxins that are harmful carcinogens. In the United States paper manufacturing uses the largest quantity of process water per unit of final product with an astonishing 324 liters of water being required to make 1 kilogram of paper.
The adverse environmental impacts associated with paper include other negative externalities such as energy consumption in transport and handling, and after use in the waste management process. Paper comprises 50% of business waste, 33% of municipal waste and 25% of waste going to landfill. In landfill, paper decomposes releasing methane gas that is over 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2.
Pingtro – An Eco-friendly Alternative
Our recently launched mobile device app called ‘Pingtro’ (a combination of ‘ping’ and ‘introduction’) offers an eco-friendly digital alternative to business cards providing the potential to end the use of paper business cards altogether.
‘Pingtro’ has been optimised for both Android and iOS. To trade business cards, users can manually search for others who have also made their card within the application and send a request. Users on Android can utilise their NFC chips that ordinarily process contactless payments, and simply tap phones to prompt a transfer of cards.
Transferred cards are then stored within an in-application ‘wallet’ and users can opt to then engage in chat, or store audio/written notes to give context at a later date as to how they might have met that person or what follow up actions may be required.
Unlike other business card applications, there is no scan function as our aim is to end the use of paper business cards forever. For more information see www.pingtroapp.com
