An easy-to-use CO2 calculation tool – the DocuWare CO2 Anaylzer – was developed by an international team of students to highlight CO2 saving potentials by moving towards digital business processes that supports the sales team of DocuWare, a cloud-based software-as-a-service company.
Saving CO2 Emissions as a Business Model
As firms must evaluate their business processes regarding caused CO2 emissions, DocuWare helps companies to achieve their sustainability goals of reducing carbon emissions. The software company offers smart solutions to digitize paper-intensive business processes to simplify complexity by process automation. DocuWare does not just want to use digitization for simplification but also as a step towards a more CO2-neutral office environment.
“With the CO2-Calculator, we want to provide our prospects and customers with a tool that calculates how much CO2 emissions they can specifically save by digitizing a business process. In other words, how much CO2 a digital process such as invoice processing emits in contrast to a paper-based process? So, in addition to saving paper and trees, you can also show this positive aspect of digitization.” Dr. Stefan Weinberger (DocuWare – Sr. Director Inside Sales)
Increasing Awareness of Saving Carbon Emissions
To date, the benefits of digitizing an office environment are abstract and concrete figures about potential CO2 savings are not given. Therefore, the DocuWare CO2-Anaylzer can inform the user, which will be the DocuWare sales team first and later on the client interested in using the DocuWare product, about the concrete sustainability benefits of going paperless is required. The user needs to know how much CO2 emissions they can reduce and how that benefits the environment by switching to a digital solution. Thereby, the application is easy to use while also quickly providing results with the use of a limited number of relevant parameters. It offers the user an estimation of how much CO2 they produce right now compared to implementing the digitized solution of DocuWare as well as how many trees can be saved in the process of manufacturing the necessary paper.
The CO2 Analyzer – An Internationally Developed Tool
The application was developed by a cross-cultural student team from the Munich University of Applied Sciences and Tampere University of Applied Sciences guided by Prof. Dr. Brehm, Prof. Dr. Günzel, Anne-Mari Sainio and Hans-Jürgen Haak. Furthermore, through the active engagement of DocuWare representatives during the development process the students were able to create a viable solution. Conclusively, the sales team of DocuWare as well as their potential customers are provided with a scientific-based calculation tool that highlights possible CO2 savings which can be used then as an additional selling point for their cloud solutions.
This Co-Innovation Lab project was carried out in cooperation with the Digital Transformation Lab (DTLab) at Munich University of Applied Sciences:
“The Digital Transformation Lab (DTLab) at Munich University of Applied Sciences is dedicated to the major social challenges of our time. Together with stakeholders in the private sector, students develop future-oriented solutions. They are supported by Amazon Web Services with state-of-the-art cloud technologies and the Working Backwards innovation methodology. We live digital transformation.”
More information about the Co-Innovation Lab and the Digital Transformation Lab (DTLab) at Munich University of Applied Sciences:
- Website Co-Innovation Lab: https://www.co-inno-lab.org/
- Website DTLab: https://hm.edu/dt-lab/ & Challenge auf der DTLab-Website
Autoren: Team Docuware