High-Tech, Paperless Meetings Help ASAE Go Green, Save Green

Going paperless at its meetings has helped the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) be not only more sustainable, but also more efficient and cost-effective, ASAE Director of Information Technology Larry Covert reported this month.

During a session on "Green IT" at the ASAE Technology Conference, which took place Dec. 6-8 in Washington, D.C., Covert said ASAE's meeting planners have eliminated the use of printed documents — previously stored in large binders that had to be carried around onsite at meetings — and instead are using a mobile app that allows them to store and access data electronically using their tablet computers.

"We are seeing big cost savings plus a reduced carbon footprint by transferring all the information that used to be printed in three 10-inch binders into an iPad," Covert said.

ASAE's app of choice, iAnnotatePDF, is available in the iTunes Store for $8 and has been optimized by ASAE Director of Database Administration Debbie Hanger, who designed meeting reports and function sheets that would work in the new digital format.

"Her team decided there had to be a better way to save paper," Covert continued. "We ended up with PDF documents with details on every function we had at the [ASAE Annual Meeting] and have the ability to mark up, alter and distribute changes electronically. The contents are also fully searchable and can be accessed instantly, so it has helped us become better customer service representatives at the meeting. There's no need to flip pages in a huge binder to try to find a piece of information or call someone — all the information is right there housed on the iPad."

Based on ASAE's success, Covert said PDFs will "be the standard for all our future meetings."

What ASAE has achieved at its meetings it also has applied in its office: According to Covert, the organization has purchased half the paper this year as last — 1,400 fewer reams — which has put 12 metric tons less of CO2 in the atmosphere and $8,400 more in ASAE's coffers.

In addition, ASAE staff has embraced mobile devices, cloud services, and electronic reading and annotating on iPads — all of which has saved 171,000 KWh per year in power, reduced ASAE's carbon footprint by 118 metric tons of CO2 per year, and saved the organization $17,100 annually, plus another $70,000 in reduced hardware replacement costs.

Concluded Covert, "Most users now prefer to read articles, web pages and other materials on the go on the iPad rather than printing them. We continually hear the phrase, 'Can you send me that for my iBooks?' I don't remember the last time I printed out something to read."

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