InfoCert (Tinexta Group), Europe’s largest Certification Authority, presents the results of an environmental impact study of its TOP® (Trusted Onboarding Platform™) platform, the onboarding solution that enables the complete digitisation of identification and signature processes.
The analysis was conducted by Spinlife, a spin-off of the University of Padua, expert in environmental sustainability paths for companies, and verified and validated by the CSQA Certification Body.
Spinlife carried out a life cycle analysis (LCA) study comparing the service of Traditional Onboarding with that of Digital Onboarding, with reference to the representative operation of opening a current account by a user.
The objective: to compare the environmental impacts between the traditional operation without TOP®, which involves moving the user to the location for the operation itself, general consumption linked to the operational maintenance of the location and the use of printed paper for signing and storing contracts, and the digital operation with TOP®, characterised by a totally dematerialised process.
All of the data analysed for the two types of service comes from scientific literature, from InfoCert itself and also from the contribution of a large international banking group, which has already been using InfoCert’s TOP® platform for years for the digital onboarding of customers for the opening of online current accounts.
Based on this data, the analysis followed a ‘cradle-to-grave’ approach, thus considering all environmental impacts from the primary production of materials and energy to the use and end-of-life phases.
The results showed that the adoption of TOP®, by totally eliminating the use of paper and the need for travel at every stage of the process – thanks, for example, to remote identification and digital signatures – reduces the kg of CO2 equivalent by up to 86% compared to the traditional method.
CSQA carried out the audit to certify the study’s compliance with the main international reference standards, in particular the requirements dictated by ISO 14040/14044, for the assessment of the life cycle environmental impacts (LCA) of the TOP® digital service.
“The study attests that the TOP® platform, and therefore the Digital Trust services on which it is based, represent a strategic solution not only for process efficiency, but also for the achievement of sustainability goals,” says Carmine Auletta, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer of InfoCert (Tinexta Group). “Thanks to the fruitful collaboration with CSQA and Spinlife, as of today we are the first provider able to enhance the environmental impact of processes based on Digital Trust solutions and to be able to provide TOP® customers with a carbon footprint reduction certificate valid for the purposes of sustainability reporting and ESG audits”.
“We are facing one of the first cases of application of the LCA method to quantify the environmental impacts of a Digital Trust tool” – says Marco Omodei Salè, Innovation Manager of CSQA. “The application of the LCA method is also fundamental to support the communication of the environmental values linked to the service, the verification certificate issued by CSQA adds more authority to the project strongly desired by Infocert”.
“In the paths of digital transformation, digital trust services assume more and more value for the productivity of companies and for the positive environmental and social impact. Their qualification, according to the eIDAS regulation, is an essential factor,” says Bruno Bernardi, Head of the Digital Services Area of CSQA, “capable of guaranteeing secure electronic interactions between citizens, businesses and public administrations and increasing the security and effectiveness of electronic services and e-business and e-commerce transactions in the European Union.”
Prof. Alessandro Manzardo, co-founder Spinlife says: “Digitalisation should not be mere technological evolution, but should also make a concrete contribution to environmental sustainability. It was possible to demonstrate this thanks to the LCA study that objectively measured environmental impacts: a scientific approach that InfoCert has in its very nature and that Spinlife has gladly supported”.
