Today we are all overly attached to our smartphones and simply have no time for anything. Automatic Bill payment is on the rise in today’s technologically savvy society. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s effortless, it’s driving up your energy consumption, AND omitting Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere!

According to this article by Chris Mooney, many people who partake in automatic bill payments are sent reports that compare their energy usage levels with others around them, as well as making them aware of their unnoticed energy-wasting habits. It’s because of these reports and awareness programs that you actually end up using more energy; and because your payments are automatic, you probably don’t regularly check how much your being billed.

In this article it has a few quotes from Economist, Steve Sexton, Duke University, and a study that he has done with regards to the effects of automatic bill payment. Sexton found that “in 2010, automatic bill pay led to an estimated $1.8 billion in bills and 8.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere which is equivalent to the annual consumption of 1.5 typical American houses.”

So this means:

[($1.82 billion in extra bills due to automatic bill payment)/(8.6 million metric tons of CO emitted die to automatic bill payment)] = $211.62

So for every additional $211.62 spent die to extra energy costs, 1 metric ton of CO is emitted into the atmosphere.

It’s not that we need to stop automatic bill payment all together, but that we need to be smart about it. We should all be aware of our daily energy usage and should check to make sure we aren’t increasing it causing an increased bill payment.