Green Initiative

Every Enrollment Plants a Tree!

By nature, online paperless payment solutions for processing transactions helps the environment, saves trees, and conserves energy and water. In support of the global initiative to offset our carbon emissions, First ACH is proud to be working with the National Arbor Day Foundation to plant a tree with each confirmed enrollment received. First ACH echoes the NACHA Green Initiative, encouraging environmentally friendly, paper reduced payment solutions, making both your business environment and the natural environment better.

What can a Tree Do?

• Trees use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis to produce the carbohydrates they need as food or fuel. This process removes the greenhouse gas from our atmosphere, and returns oxygen back to the air as a byproduct of the process. And, since trees absorb other gasses from the air with the carbon dioxide, they further reduce the concentration of harmful pollutants in our atmosphere. Planting a tree remains one of the most inexpensive methods of removing carbon dioxide, greenhouse gasses, and pollutants from our atmosphere.
• The average tree in it’s lifespan traps about 1.3 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, roughly the emissions resulting from a coast to coast road trip in the U.S.
• If every American family planted just one tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion lbs annually. This is almost 5% of the amount that human activity pumps into the atmosphere each year. (American Forestry Association Tree Facts: Growing Greener Cities, 1992.)

What Can ACH Do?

According to the recent NACHA article, if all U.S. households received and paid their bills electronically, the country would:

• Save 16.5 million trees each year, or the amount of lumber needed for 216,054 typical single-family homes.
• Reduce toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, akin to taking 355,015 cars off the road.
• Reduce by 1.6 billion pounds the solid waste generated in a year, equal to 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks.

Related News/Articles:

• Pay it Green - Electronic billing, statements and payments are a simple, safe, smart way to help the world today for a better planet tomorrow.
• Why Online Bill Paying is Good for the Environment
• Moll, Gary and Young, Stanley - Growing Greener Cities: A Tree Planting Handbook, Global Re-Leaf. American Forestry Association and Living Planet Press, Los Angeles, CA., 1992.
• Benefits of trees
• Nature and Consumer Environments
• Center for Urban Forest Research