With the buzz of the sustainability revolution hanging in the air from COP26 and National Recycling Week in full swing, our environmental impact has never been under such intense scrutiny. To reach our 2050 goals, every Australian will need to play their part, but businesses with the power to change consumer behaviour will be expected to carry even more of the responsibility.

Brands like Patagonia, Lululemon, IKEA, and Zara are stepping up and taking responsibility. But they’re overlooking one easy, quick win they can make for our planet at checkout.

Small changes make a big impact

If retailers were to ditch the practice of printing receipts altogether, as a nation we could save approximately 1.5 million trees, 249 billion litres of water, and 4.5 billion litres of oil in just one year. This would help give Australia the leg up it needs to come good on its recent pledge to halt deforestation entirely by 2030.

The total size of the problem our planet faces due to paper receipts is much bigger than you might expect. This is because, contrary to popular belief, these itemised records are not produced using the type of paper sitting in your printer at home, but rather thermal paper coated with toxic Bisphenol-A and Bisphenol-S. The correct way to dispose of 93% of all paper receipts printed in Australia is to send the toxic paper to landfill.

Consider your brand image

These days sustainability is a core value of the Australian consumer, and in a consumer-first market, businesses have to adapt to meet that expectation. A recent report from EY found that over seven in ten Australians (71%) believe brands have a responsibility to make a positive change in the world. Even more say the behaviour of a company is as important as what it sells (78%).

If your business has made concerted efforts to create sustainable changes by switching to recyclable packaging, implementing a sustainability policy, or partnering with environmental charities, consider the hypocrisy of offering your customers an unrecyclable proof of purchase.

A paper receipt is more than just an itemised purchase log. It communicates a message to your customer about the steps you are willing to take to follow through on the goals you have laid out publicly. Ask yourself, do my business practices align with the values of my business and my customers, and what can I do to make sure they are in sync moving forward?

Convenience without consequence

Scrunching and stowing every receipt we are handed has fast become an ingrained behaviour, but one we can unlearn just as quickly. The hard truth is that while the world turned cassette tapes into Spotify accounts and copper coins into tap-and-go cards, the paper receipt has been left behind.

An archaic relic of business models gone-by, paper receipts have been exposed as no longer fit for purpose and are being retired from action by some of Australia’s leading banks and retailers. Its replacement is the young and plucky Smart Receipt, hell-bent on creating efficiencies in businesses that don’t come at the cost of the environment.

A Smart Receipt is the ultimate upgrade, enabling businesses to seamlessly deliver itemised proof of purchase to their customer’s phone via their existing banking app or SMS, fully connecting the last link in the contactless retail experience. Smart Receipts enable businesses to provide customers with proof of warranty, speed up the returns process and make record keeping easier for when tax time rolls around. Finally, while the traditional paper receipt ends the conversation between retailer and consumer, Smart Receipts represent a new way to engage with customers, even after the point-of-sale.

The responsibility of slowing the climate crisis is on each of our shoulders, but it will be those with the power to spark change in the behaviours of others that will have the biggest impact. By making a small change that aligns with the values shared by your business and your customers, you could succeed in not only future-proofing your business but the planet too.

To find out more about how Slyp Smart Receipts can help our planet while unlocking value for your business, contact us at info@slyp.com.au.

By Paul Weingarth, CEO & co-founder of Slyp