{"id":5746,"date":"2017-09-28T20:59:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T18:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=5746"},"modified":"2017-09-28T20:59:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T18:59:38","slug":"postal-elections-carbon-footprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint","title":{"rendered":"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elections are not only expensive but often have a significant carbon footprint. Learn about how to reduce the environmental costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nearly all institutions have some level of democracy built into them, from cooperatives and unions to companies and universities we live in an age of elections and democratic accountability. Board of directors need the support of their members or shareholders, students need to elect their representatives and bylaws changes often need to be ratified by the membership at large.<\/p>\n

The impact on the environment can be staggering at times. Members and shareholders ultimately want to elect representatives with minimal fuss. Postal voting, therefore, emerged as a minimal effort alternative to traditional ballot box voting. Many institutions remain happy with this voting procedure for its ability to bridge the gap between convenience and familiarity.<\/p>\n

There are, however, a few downsides: the cost, the effort involved and the impact on the environment.<\/p>\n

The Carbon Footprint\u00a0of Postal Voting<\/h3>\n

In a study conducted by POLYAS in cooperation with Micromata<\/a>, we found that traditional postal voting produced up to 54 times the amount of CO2 than POLYAS’ online elections. The study compared elections with an electoral roll of 36,798 voters. Both elections were conducted with the same parameters to compare total CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n

For the postal election, voters received and returned their physical election documents by mail. In comparison, voters for the online election received their credentials and notifications digitally. They then were able to cast their ballots in a certified, secure online election system.<\/p>\n

The results were established taking into account the\u00a0Creation and printing of election documents, the sending of election documents by post, the return send of election documents by post and finally the impact of announcing the election result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Voting Procedure<\/td>\nTotal Carbon Dioxide Emissions<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Postal Voting<\/strong> (Inc. creation, printing, sending and return of election documents and the disclosure of election result)<\/td>\n2999.363 (Kg)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Online Election<\/strong> (Inc. sending of election documents digitally, voting online and disclosure of result)<\/td>\n\u00a055.363 (Kg)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Click here for more information about the study comparing CO2 emissions from postal and online voting (PDF).<\/a><\/p>\n

Financial Costs of Postal Voting\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It is clear that online elections have a far smaller carbon footprint. There is no paper needing to be produced and printed. Ballots do not need accompanying instructions and separate envelopes to ensure a secure election. Individual ballots do not need to be shipped and announcements\u00a0do not need to be made to each individual member.<\/p>\n

Not only are online elections better for the environment, they also help to reduce the costs of setting up, managing and holding all types of elections. Postal voting is always more expensive, with the cost of postage alone being higher than the average cost per voter.<\/p>\n

Online elections require far less effort to set up. Simply create a ballot, upload an electoral roll and set the date of the election. Nor do you need to unpack and count individual ballots by hand or hire a counting machine. Our online system manages this process quickly and efficiently for you.<\/p>\n

We all need to reduce our carbon footprint. With the added bonus of being cheaper and far less hassle, why not\u00a0 learn more about online voting<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Contact us for a free quote for your next election<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elections are not only expensive but often have a significant carbon footprint. Learn about how to reduce the environmental costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":5749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Postal-online-elections-Carbon-footprint.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Charles Harding","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"},"yoast_head":"\nHow Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"POLYAS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-28T18:59:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Postal-online-elections-Carbon-footprint.jpg?fit=860%2C280&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Charles Harding\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Verfasst von\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Charles Harding\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 Minuten\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint\",\"name\":\"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-28T18:59:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-28T18:59:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148\"},\"description\":\"Learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/de\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"POLYAS\",\"description\":\"the blog for secure online voting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148\",\"name\":\"Charles Harding\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"de-DE\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Charles Harding\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.polyas.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint","description":"Learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint","og_locale":"de_DE","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint","og_description":"Learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint","og_site_name":"POLYAS","article_published_time":"2017-09-28T18:59:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":860,"height":280,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Postal-online-elections-Carbon-footprint.jpg?fit=860%2C280&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Charles Harding","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Verfasst von":"Charles Harding","Gesch\u00e4tzte Lesezeit":"3 Minuten"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint","url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint","name":"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-28T18:59:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-28T18:59:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148"},"description":"Learn about how to reduce the carbon footprint and financial costs of your next election by switching from postal to online elections.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"de-DE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/postal-elections-carbon-footprint#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/de"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Online Elections Help Reduce your Carbon Footprint"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/","name":"POLYAS","description":"the blog for secure online voting","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"de-DE"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/3b9240fa164074e2fc773e7fcd238148","name":"Charles Harding","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"de-DE","@id":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9eee54a942871db9227087900a40d73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Charles Harding"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.polyas.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/c-harding"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Postal-online-elections-Carbon-footprint.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72Pnr-1uG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4521,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/cooperatives-digitalization","url_meta":{"origin":5746,"position":0},"title":"The Digitalization of Cooperative elections","date":"14\/03\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Interestingly, there is a surprising lack of digitalization in cooperatives at present. Online voting, however, offers cooperatives a way to increase member participation and would help move cooperatives forward with the times. Representative and council elections are integral aspects of cooperatives. It's precisely such displays of democratic participation which makes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Democracy"","img":{"alt_text":"Winning Candidates in Cooperatives' Election organization","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/genossenschaften_digitale_Mitbestimmung-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6018,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/professional-association-candidates","url_meta":{"origin":5746,"position":1},"title":"Professional Association Candidates","date":"29\/11\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Professional associations hold elections for various positions. From board members to representatives today we are going through all of the positions that professional associations need to hold elections for and how candidates are selected.\u00a0 Directors The board of directors are the governing body of the association. Directors are required to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Professional Associations Candidates","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Professional-Association-Candidates.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/electing-representatives-of-cooperatives-online","url_meta":{"origin":5746,"position":2},"title":"Electing representatives of cooperatives online","date":"24\/06\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The origins of the idea of the cooperative date as far back as the 19th century. The cooperative principle, however, is just as current as ever. Democratic processes have been closely tied to cooperative participation since day one. Online elections can thus carry cooperative democracy into the 21st century. Cooperative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Democracy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Genossenschaft_Vertreterwahl_online1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":561,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/equal-opportunity-officers-reduce-administrative-costs-with-online-elections","url_meta":{"origin":5746,"position":3},"title":"Equal opportunity officers: Reduce administrative costs with online elections","date":"15\/07\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Along with the legally stipulated election of equal opportunities, officers in federal, and state offices, elections for equal opportunity officers are also regularly held in corporate bodies under public law, universities and other institutions and companies. These elections can only be secure, legally binding, cost-efficient and comfortable when held online.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Democracy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/gleichstellungsbeauftragte1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5907,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/electoral-research\/corporations-structure","url_meta":{"origin":5746,"position":4},"title":"Corporations: Structure & Types of Elections","date":"02\/11\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Corporations are a fascinating area to look at when it comes to elections. There exists a complete spectrum of democratic principles regarding the management of a corporation. In this, our first part looking at corporations we take a look at the general structure of corporations and the types of elections\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electoral research"","img":{"alt_text":"Corporations Structure, Corporate Election process & Managing Corporate Elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Corporate-Elections.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2849,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/protect-the-environment-with-polyas","url_meta":{"origin":5746,"position":5},"title":"Protect the Environment with POLYAS\u00a0","date":"17\/06\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You can do a lot to protect the environment: turn off the electricity when it isn\u2019t needed, use your car less often, do recycling and vote online. Online voting not only saves time and money, it also decreases\u00a0CO2-emissions. A healthy environment is the key for a good life on earth.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital Democracy"","img":{"alt_text":"Protect the environment with Polyas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/save_CO2-online_voting.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5746"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5751,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5746\/revisions\/5751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}