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Calculate Carbon Savings & Money Savings

Mobile data collection saves money and eliminates greenhouse emissions in the process! Use this FREE tool to calculate money savings and calculate carbon savings from using mobile data forms over paper forms. The primary cost savings comes from not having to reenter paper forms data into a computer system. On average, you can save from $0.51 per page if using offshore contractors to reenter form data, to $1.88 or more if using your own employees. Fine-tune your dollar savings calculations by adjusting your labor costs, overhead percentages and other parameters. Refine the way you calculate CO2 savings by adjusting carbon lifecycle parameters. Methodologies vary, so please feel free to contact us and suggest additional ways to calculate carbon savings, or calculate CO2 savings, that you would like to see us implement. Credit: Spencer Meyer, Center for Research on Sustainable Forests, University of Maine.

Enter the average number of forms you use each year as equivalents of one letter size sheet of paper:
Estimated annual savings by using doForms instead of paper forms:
$ in cash | pounds of CO2 | trees
Fine-tune your calculations by adjusting the parameters below Value
Average number of questions on a form printed on one sheet of letter size office paper
Average cost of printing a black and white one-sided paper form with 20 questions using an office printer including paper cost $
Average time in minutes to enter the answers to an average form question into a computer system including wasted time min
Average hourly pay of employee who would be entering paper form data in a computer $
Average fringe benefits as expressed as a percent of "average hourly pay" %
Average company overhead costs expressed as a percent of "average hourly pay" %
Average company general and administrative costs (G&A) expressed as a percent of the sum of labor cost + fringe benefits + overhead %
Average grams of CO2 produced during the lifecycle of one sheet of letter size office paper gram
Average number of letter size office paper sheets produced from one tree
  • Fringe benefits rates include:
  • Compensated absences, such as vacation, holidays, and sick leave;
  • Medical programs, such as health and dental insurance;
  • Retirement, such as the defined contribution portion of a retirement plan and plan service fees;
  • Long-term disability coverage;
  • Worker's compensation coverage; and
  • Employee wellness, such as fitness club membership and other wellness programs
  • Average industry rates can be found at http://www.govcontractassoc.com/gca-digest/gca-digest-2009/grant-thorton-survey-on-professional-firms-financial-and-cost-statistics.html. We use an average rate of 20 percent.
  • Overhead covers:
  • Rent (only for the space that employees use);
  • Depreciation of furniture and equipment;
  • Utilities (based on the space allotment for employees); and
  • Supplies that employees share, such as office supplies.
  • Average industry rates can be found at http://www.govcontractassoc.com/gca-digest/gca-digest-2009/grant-thorton-survey-on-professional-firms-financial-and-cost-statistics.html. We use an average rate of 80 percent.
  • General and administration covers:
  • Management (and associated fringe, direct, and indirect costs)
  • Legal costs
  • State and Federal taxes
  • Marketing to the Government costs
  • Accounting costs
  • Average industry rates can be found at http://www.govcontractassoc.com/gca-digest/gca-digest-2009/grant-thorton-survey-on-professional-firms-financial-and-cost-statistics.html. We use an average rate of 10 percent.
  • CO2 emission savings calculations:
  • The methods of calculating CO2 emissions vary depending on how the office paper "life-cycle" is defined. Three are performed based on data from EPA and industry sources which produce values of 28.1, 26.0 and 8.6 grams of CO2 per sheet of letter size office paper. We use an average value of 20.9 grams. Additional information can be found at:
    http://www.preton.com/pdf/PretonSaver_envi_whitePaperFinal_1403010.pdf
    http://www.carbonrally.com/challenges/18-paper-waste
  • Tree savings calculations:
  • We use an average value of 80,500 sheets of letter size office paper per tree as suggested by http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/print