Reduce your company's carbon footprint with digital business cards
Calculate your company's real environmental impact and discover how much CO₂, water and money you can save by switching to digital business cards.
Your company's carbon footprint: calculate your impact
Enter the number of employees in your company and the cards each person hands out per year. You'll get an estimate of the real savings in CO₂ emissions, paper, water and costs if you switch to digital business cards.
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Curious how we calculated the numbers? Check our calculator sources page to find out more.
What is a company's carbon footprint?
A company's carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases -mainly CO₂- that an organisation generates directly and indirectly through its activity. It is measured in kilograms or tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e).
It includes all emission sources: electricity consumption, employee travel, the supply chain and, often underestimated, the use of office materials such as paper. A company of 100 people handing out 200 paper cards per employee per year generates more than 34 kg of CO₂ from those cards alone.
Measuring a company's carbon footprint is the essential first step of any serious sustainability plan with measurable results.
The three emissions scopes
Scope 1 - Direct emissions
Fuels burned in owned facilities, company vehicle fleet and internal industrial processes.
Scope 2 - Purchased energy
Electricity, heat or steam bought from third parties. Highly relevant for offices and data centers.
Scope 3 - Value chain
Business travel, office materials, paper business cards, waste and employee commuting. Usually the hardest to measure and the largest.
How to reduce a company's carbon footprint: 7 steps
Reducing a company's carbon footprint requires a systematic approach. These are the highest-impact actions, ordered from lowest to highest implementation complexity.
Step 1 - Measure before you act
Without data, reduction is impossible. Calculate your current carbon footprint using tools like IDQR's calculator for Scope 3 business card emissions, or a full energy audit covering all scopes.
Step 2 - Digitalise paper-based processes
Digital business cards, electronic contracts, PDF reports and digital invoicing eliminate Scope 3 emissions immediately and without major investment.
Step 3 - Switch to renewable energy
Moving to an electricity provider with a certified renewable origin can reduce your company's Scope 2 emissions by up to 100%. It is one of the highest-impact measures on your emissions balance.
Step 4 - Optimise employee mobility
Encourage remote work, public transport commuting and electric vehicles in the fleet. Employee travel accounts for a significant share of Scope 3 in service companies.
Step 5 - Review your supply chain
Prioritise suppliers with verified sustainability commitments. Sustainable companies have greater resilience and access to contracts with organisations that require ESG criteria.
Step 6 - Train and engage employees
A company's sustainability does not work without its people. Training programmes, shared goals and recognition of good practices multiply the impact of technical measures.
Step 7 - Offset residual emissions
Once avoidable emissions have been reduced as far as possible, offset the remainder through certified reforestation, renewable energy or carbon capture projects. This completes the path to climate neutrality.
A company sustainability plan: what it must include
A company sustainability plan is a strategic document that defines environmental commitments, measurable objectives and the concrete actions to achieve them. It is not a communications exercise, but rather an operational roadmap.
Baseline diagnosis
Emissions inventory by scope, energy consumption, waste management and natural resource use. Without this starting point, measuring progress is impossible.
SMART objectives
Specific, measurable, time-bound targets: "reduce Scope 3 emissions by 30% in 3 years" is a valid objective; "be more sustainable" is not.
Action plan
Measures prioritised by impact and feasibility, each with an assigned owner, budget and implementation date.
Tracking indicators
Measurable sustainability KPIs: kg CO₂ avoided, percentage of renewable energy, waste reduction, cost per digital business card versus paper.
Communication and reporting
Annual sustainability report, internal communication with the team and transparency towards clients and stakeholders. Increasingly required by European regulation.
Continuous improvement
Annual review of objectives, incorporation of new measures and updating of the plan as the company and regulations evolve.
Why digital cards are part of corporate environmental sustainability
Companies looking to improve their environmental sustainability tend to focus on energy or transport, but overlook small, easy-to-eliminate emission sources. Paper business cards are a perfect example.
A paper business card emits approximately 1.71 g of CO₂ and consumes water during production. Multiplied across hundreds or thousands of employees handing out hundreds of cards a year, the cumulative impact is significant. And most importantly: it is 100% avoidable with digital technology.
IDQR digital cards not only eliminate that environmental impact: they are also more practical, always up to date and allow you to measure the real reach of every professional contact with real-time analytics.