I read a lot of magazines each month. I read mostly fashion magazines, some business ones, & a few more esoteric types. And I enjoy each & every one. But what I have noticed over & over again is that most of these magazines are talking about going green. The magazines themselves may be printed on recycled paper. Or there're articles about how to reduce your carbon footprint. And there're now some interesting new phrases popping up called "repurposing" which to me just means using my old junk instead of throwing it away!

Regardless of the way going green has been represented in popular culture lately it has actually been of concern for most of us for a long period of time. I do not know about you but I have been recycling since college. I have also avoided purchasing synthetic clothing in favor of natural materials. And we have been getting our produce from local farms as long as I can remember. Does this reduce my carbon footprint? It might. But the point is, I & many people I know have been "going green" for longer than we care to point out!

So how does this affect your business & what does it have to do with payroll?

Many businesses have become interested in reducing their carbon footprint. Not because it is a current trend, but because it actually can be very cost effective. How? Well one example for our company is that we no longer buy new toner cartridges, we use recycled cartridges to produce our checks. This cost us less, is more environmentally friendly & we contribute to this process by sending back our used cartridges so that they can be often used again. We also have clients that have gone "paperless". For these clients we send all of their payroll data in an electronic format instead of printing everything out. This way our clients print only what they need. But what about the employees' checks? Well, this is where payroll can assist your company "go green".

One of the first ways that a company can use payroll to reduce a carbon footprint is to use a direct deposit service. And so... So far so good. When you use a direct deposit service your employees' checks are deposited into their bank accounts on their behalf on payday. How does this reduce a carbon footprint? First, the employees are saving gas by not driving back & forth to the bank. Secondly, paper itself does not need to be used in the pay process. Clear? Instead of printing & handing out checks on payday, green employers are using direct deposit & electronically sending pay stubs out to their employees. So... So... So fuel & energy are saved from the cutting down trees & milling them into paper. Plus fuel & energy are saved from the transport of that paper. And fuel & energy are saved from printing & delivering the payroll checks to your company. This small thing adds up to a big difference in our use of energy & fuel.

This is all well & good, but what are you saving in expenses by utilizing a direct deposit service? Because after all in my company's example of toner cartridges we not just helped the environment but we saved money by using a recycled product. OK. So here is how you save money:

? You save on productivity costs with your employees. You are not paying for the extra time squeaked n by your staff on payday to drive to the bank, wait in line, and drive back to work on their extended payday lunch breaks.

? You save on delivery costs with your payroll company.

? By electronically delivering your employees' check stubs each pay period instead of mailing the checks out you save on postage each pay.

So what's stopping you from going green with your employees' green? If you are worried that your employees will not go for using direct deposit why not appeal to their environmental consciousness & explain to them how they arehelping you go green to be a more responsible employer? After all, now is the time when we can all use this trend to our advantage to save money & be more environmentally responsible.