 | Mark Kolarik is the President of the Kansas Teachers Community Credit Union, located in Pittsburg, KS, since 10-2002 and is a board member of the Kansas Corporate Credit Union located in Wichita, KS . He has been employed in the financial service industry for the last 31 years, having worked in several credit unions for 21years and 10 years in the banking industry. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and is a Certificated Credit Union Executive. |
Banking & Finance
2012-08-01 16:16:11
Green Banking
Q- I am active in the green movement, is there a way to do green banking?
A- Yes you can do your banking in an eco friendly way. To reduce your carbon footprint and save money, you can practice eco-friendly methods when you visit your financial institution.
Use an ATM.
If you need to make a deposit or withdrawal, use an ATM machine rather than a bank teller. When you make a transaction through a teller, more paper is used and processed. This causes more environmental waste. And when using an ATM, do not take a receipt.
If every person in the U.S. chose not to receive a receipt each time they went to the ATM, we would save a roll of paper more than 2 billion feet long (long enough to circle the equator 15 times)!
Participate in online banking.
By receiving your bills, making payments, and checking your account balance online, you will save time, gas, money, and paper.
If every household in the U.S. paid just their credit card bills through the Internet, $2 billion per year in postage costs would be saved.
Receive paperless bank statements and request automatic deposits for your paychecks.
Participating in a direct deposit program will not only reduce time and fuel you use traveling to the bank, but it will also get you your money a lot faster.
If everyone in the U.S. who is eligible for an automatic deposit program chose direct deposit for their checks, $65 billion in fuel costs and time would be saved.
Use a Debit Card
Instead of writing paper checks to pay bills or purchase items, use a debit card. When using a debit card the transaction amount is automatically taken from your checking account, eliminating the need for paper checks.
Do your taxes online.
Get your tax forms online and e-file your tax returns.
If every U.S. tax return were electronically filed, at least 660 million sheets of paper would be saved each year!
