Research Prospectus Intro

All too often organizations do not believe they can have a profound impact on the environment without making drastic changes to their operations that result in costly investments. However, there are minor adjustments that can be made in an organization to provide an immediate impact on the environment and financial savings to the environment. Direct deposit is something already being utilized at Ohio University for faculty and staff; however, it is not something that has received strong emphasis. Removing the option for checks to be distributed would be financially and environmentally beneficial.

As previously stated, direct deposit is currently an option for faculty and staff at Ohio University. However, the university also still provides written checks as a form of paying its employees. While this option might be comfortable for employees who have always received a check, the environmental impact of generating these checks is considerable. If Ohio University is providing paychecks for 15,000 employees, over 5,607 pounds of paper are being used each year to generate these paychecks for each employee twice monthly. What’s more, 53,480 gallons of waste water discharged into lakes, streams and rivers as well as the 2,077 gallons of fuel used annually to transport the checks all add up to a significant impact on the environment. While oftentimes people might only consider the amount of paper being used to generate paychecks, resources being consumed like fuel and water are not equally considered but are equally important.

Aside from faculty and staff utilizing direct deposit, students can take advantage of the opportunity as well. Currently the Office of the Bursar offers direct deposit as a method of distributing student loan refunds. While this method might be convenient for people accustomed to the traditional methods, as mentioned earlier, the environmental resources the process consumes is tremendous. If students were no longer given the option of a check being produced, the environmental impact would be remarkable. Many businesses currently use direct deposit, and it is becoming more common to provide it as the only available option for receiving paychecks. However, the United States is still far behind other European and Asian countries in its adoption of direct deposit.

Another situation to be considered is just how substantial the impact on the oil industry really is. Millions upon millions of gallons of gasoline are consumed each year just transporting bills and paychecks any other type of mail, let alone all the gas consumed for other general purposes. The truth his the savings in gasoline consumption would be mind boggling while the money saved by filling the tank less would be sure to make businesses happy.

Aside from just being beneficial to the environment, direct deposit provides organizations with financial savings. U.S. businesses have saved over $6.7 billion over the last 10 years by utilizing direct deposit as a method for paying employees. Direct deposit is a process that, once in place, is mostly automated and does not just cut down on environmental resources, but also reduces labor costs as well associated with generating paychecks the traditional way.

Another idea that should be considered on the side for how Ohio University can further go paperless is how it generates its parking tickets. In 2001, over $281,000 in parking tickets were issued. Each of these tickets is accompanied by a slip of paper on a car windshield. Alternatively, if every student registered their vehicle, parking tickets could then be issued through e-mail. Students already have the option of paying tickets online. If the option was made available to view their ticket online instead of one being printed, this would greatly reduce resources as well. It would also reduce labor hours as well, since parking services would not spend as much time printing and issuing tickets.

There are large changes that can be made to help the environment. However, minor changes such as direct deposit have outstanding impacts on the environment as well, and also provide financial savings to the organizations instituting these practices. That is why Ohio University needs to further implement direct deposit throughout the university and consider paperless options for parking tickets as well.

Bibliography:

Schwartz, Donna. (2009). Use Direct Deposit, Save a Pound of Paper. [Web]. Retrieved from http://payitgreen.org/files/pressReleases/PayItGreen_April09_Consumer_Release.pd

Withers, Laura. (2002, August, 2nd.). Parking services to alter ticketing, appeals process. The Post, Retrieved from http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/archives3/aug02/080102/n5.html