The Move To Paperless Shareholder Statements
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 09.23.06
Anyone who has a mutual fund or individual company stock has to marvel over the immense waste of resources embodied by the annual hardcopy reports. Of the millions that get mailed, probably only a tiny propoortion get more than a cursory review. And, did we forget to mention how we look forward to those glossy executive team photos? Recycled glossy paper doesn't cut it. If you've got enough money to buy stock, you can afford a computer and a net connection. That way there's at least the option to scan on screen and not print the whole PDF file. Dow Jones Newswire has some updated news on that very topic. "...Computershare Ltd. (CPU.AU), an Australian shareholder-services firm, will launch a campaign, backed by about a dozen big U.S. companies, to convince more shareholders to switch to electronic versions of those communications. As an incentive, shareholders are told that a tree will be planted for everyone who goes paperless. Fittingly, the program is called eTree...", which we wrote about three years ago, before US companies joined in.
"So far 11 U.S. companies have enlisted, among them Google Inc. (GOOG), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), McDonald's Corp. (MCD), Verizon Communications (VZ), J.M. Smucker Co. (SJM) and American Electric Power Co. (AEP)".
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Well Duh, it’s about time. I don’t know why all companies switch to e-paper. It’s cheaper and more efficient anyway. Now if someone could convince the medical industry to go paperless, we would really be getting somewhere.
I agree. Too many industries are printing way too much stuff that could be transferred to the Net.