The ecological footprint of paper flows in the Belgian insurance sector

A sector that still runs on paper

The figures show just how large the paper flow in the insurance world is.

In Belgium, insurance companies and their brokers exchange more than 100 million production, financial and claims messages every year. A considerable share of these still goes through letters and manual follow up today.

That intensity fits a broader Belgian picture. At several hundred kilos per inhabitant per year, paper consumption in our country is well above the European average of roughly 160 kilos. In the office environment alone, an average employee prints some 50 kilos of paper a year. For a sector that runs on document intensive files, that adds up quickly.

What paper costs the environment

Every sheet of paper carries a hidden bill. According to life cycle analyses, producing a single A4 sheet accounts for roughly 4 to 5 grams of CO2 equivalent and, on top of that, costs an average of about 10 litres of water. Anyone using a laser printer adds around 1 more gram of CO2 per printed page.

At sector level, those drops swell into a steady stream. As far back as 2014, the global paper and pulp industry already accounted for 5.6 percent of industrial energy consumption and ranks among the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Added to that are the effects of transporting, storing and handling physical mail. For an insurer processing millions of documents a year, paper therefore translates into a measurable CO2 and water impact.

ESG and CSRD make that impact measurable

What was long a matter of goodwill is now a reporting obligation. Under the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), large companies, banks and insurers have been reporting on their sustainability performance since financial year 2024, with the first reports appearing from 2025 onwards. The regulation is still evolving, not least through the Omnibus simplification package of early 2025, but the direction is clear.

A crucial component is the reporting of Scope 3 emissions: all indirect emissions in the value chain, from suppliers to waste processing. Paper sits exactly in that category. Consumption, printing, physical mail and archiving all count towards the ESG story that insurers must be able to demonstrate. Reducing the paper flow therefore improves both the actual footprint and the figures in the sustainability report.

Digitalisation as a concrete ESG lever

This is where intelligent document processing comes in. By digitalising incoming mail, claim files and communication between companies and brokers, a large part of the paper disappears from the chain. Digitalised files require no printing, no envelope and no physical archive space.

In concrete terms, that means:

• Incoming documents and emails are recognised digitally and routed to the correct workflow, without an intermediate step on paper.
• Policies, endorsements and claim files are created, enriched and stored electronically.
• Communication between insurer and broker runs through structured digital messages instead of letters and loose emails.

Every automated step that replaces paper directly reduces consumption, the associated emissions and the waste stream. For ESG reporting, it also delivers hard, traceable data on the savings achieved.

People and machines, with an eye for sustainability

For us, digitalisation always serves reliable processes. We combine the efficiency of automated processing with the oversight of human experts, so that speed and care go together. The same approach that shortens the turnaround time of files helps insurers to structurally reduce their paper flow.

Sustainability thus becomes a fixed part of the way documents flow through the organisation. ESG targets and operational efficiency reinforce each other, and the insurer builds a chain that is both faster and greener.

At Input for You, we see sustainability and digitalisation as two sides of the same movement. By organising document processes more intelligently, we help insurers to reduce their ecological footprint while giving their reporting credible support.

Curious how we can help you reduce your paper flow and underpin your ESG reporting? Get in touch with us and discover what intelligent document processing can mean for your organisation.