What Paper Ballots Are Really Costing the Planet

Most community associations never think about the environmental footprint of their elections. Paper feels familiar, ballots seem small, and annual meeting packages have always been part of the process. But when you look closely, paper elections carry a much larger environmental cost than most boards and managers expect.

Over the course of a year, some communities generate enough paper waste to create a carbon footprint comparable to driving from Toronto to Miami. 1, 2.

Ballots are only a small part of the total printed material involved in an election. Once you combine notices, proxy forms, agendas, and full financial statements, an annual meeting package can easily reach 30 pages. Mailing this package to every owner in a typical 300-unit building uses around 9,000 sheets of paper.

The Environmental Cost of One Paper Election

Data from the Environmental Paper Network shows that printing and mailing a 30-page package to 300 homeowners uses nearly one full tree 1 and produces about 254 kilograms (559 lbs) of CO₂  1 – roughly equal to driving 635 miles (1,021 km) in a standard passenger car 2. That single mailing also generates 20 kilograms of solid waste 1, about the amount ten people produce in one day.

Most of these materials are read once, skimmed briefly, and then moved straight to the recycling bin.

Why Digital Elections Make a Difference

Shifting to electronic voting changes the environmental impact immediately. Instead of thousands of sheets of paper, everything – meeting notices, agendas, documents, and ballots – is delivered electronically with a single click. Digital elections dramatically reduce emissions tied to printing, packaging, and transportation.

Research suggests that a paper election can produce forty times more emissions than an electronic one. If a community switches fully to e-voting, it could run ten elections before matching the carbon footprint of a single paper-based vote. 3

With e-voting, your community replaces a paper-heavy process with a modern, efficient way to make decisions, and it requires very little effort or investment to adopt.

It’s Time for Communities to Choose a Greener Way to Vote

The environmental cost of paper elections is easy to overlook because it is not visible. We see the ballots cast, not the trees harvested, the water consumed, or the emissions released along the way.

Beyond sustainability, e-voting also saves boards and managers significant time. There is no printing, stuffing envelopes, tracking postage, or manually tabulating results. Residents can vote from anywhere, before or during the meeting, and results are tallied instantly when the vote closes.

With electronic voting, your community reduces waste, lowers emissions, and modernizes how decisions are made. It is a small change with a meaningful impact, offering boards a practical and environmentally responsible way to run their elections.

Switch to e-voting. Help restore forests.

Sources

1. Environmental Paper Network: A 30-page meeting package mailed to 300 units (≈ 9,000 sheets) produces 254 kg CO₂, 20+ kg solid waste, and uses almost one full tree (https://c.environmentalpaper.org/individual.html).

2. EPA Vehicle Emissions: Average passenger vehicle emits ~0.4 kg CO₂ per mile (https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle).

3. Paper vs. Online Voting: Online voting emissions are far lower than paper-based voting — see estimates from carbon-footprint of email and global energy sources (https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/the-thought-experiment-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-an-email/; https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-co2-status-report-2019/emissions; https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/energy-and-the-environment/carbon-dioxide-emissions-from-electricity.aspx).