BOULDER, Colo.-Elevations Credit Union is an eco-conscious operation in a community that values green companies, and now it is tapping technology to take a step toward a paperless environment.
The $966-million CU will deploy a platform from Costa Mesa, Calif.-based vendor MeridianLink to automate the opening of new accounts and lending, both online and in branch. The goal is to give current members another level of convenience, while also breaking down nonmembers' perceived hurdles to opening an account.
Dennis Paul, AVP of business and community development, said the credit union has strived to pursue the concept of a "triple bottom line"-financial performance, social responsibility and environmental stewardship.
"With the environmental element, we want to be as sustainable as possible," he said. "The new agreement with MeridianLink brings us e-signatures. We are particularly excited about that element of the project. This is the biggest initiative we have taken toward a paperless environment."
How The Policy Reads
Elevations CU's Green Policy states: "Consistent with our organization's commitment to social responsibility, Elevations Credit Union seeks to minimize the impact of our activities on the environment and promote the understanding of sustainability in our business activities. Our goal is to continually look for ways in which we can improve our green credentials, and to link with other like-minded companies and organizations."
Apparently the effort is working, as Elevations garnered a Community Sustainability Leader Award from the Boulder Chamber of Commerce in 2010.
Paul pointed out Elevations has several internal policies in place to encourage a green mindset, especially regarding printing habits by staff. The paper it uses is part post-consumer waste, and it has an "aggressive" composting program, he said.
"We welcome the opportunity to have a paperless lending process," Paul said. "We have a robust intranet system which makes many of our human resources documents paperless, and many of our policy and procedure documents are online."
Elsewhere, with energy consumption, Paul said ECU is "working by stages, starting with the low-hanging fruit," such as automated lighting systems and time-controlled heating and cooling.
"We take our savings from that and then attack the next level," he explained. "The thought is this eventually becomes self-sustaining and self-funding. Eventually we might have a state-of-the-art HVAC system.
"Boulder is a very progressive city and we have access to a lot of great organizations," he continued. "There are a lot of good reasons to do this, and among those is community awareness. It fits well with the triple bottom line. We can't feel successful as an organization unless we fulfill all three components."
With all these initiatives in place, Elevations is somewhat quiet about its greenness. Paul said the CU does not actively promote its eco-friendliness in its messaging, "but we are known in our community as a good corporate citizen in a number of ways."
