Every year, two million cars are inspected in Denmark. All owners must take the inspection report home on paper, says the EU. It costs 33 tons of CO2.
According to an EU regulation on car inspections, Danish inspection centers must emit 33 tons of CO2 per year, even though that emission can easily be avoided.
This is because EU legislation in this area requires that inspection reports be printed on paper. Nationwide, approximately two million vehicle inspections are carried out annually. This means that at least the same number of A4 sheets must be printed.
But this is completely without reason, writes the visual chain Applus in a press release .
If all the sheets were stacked on top of each other, they would reach a height of 200 meters. If they were instead laid side by side, they would cover an area equivalent to 17.4 football fields.
A standard A4 sheet weighs 5 grams, which means that trees are cut down to produce 10 tons of paper to meet the demand.
The annual production of inspection reports in Denmark results in CO2 emissions of 33 tons.
This corresponds to the total annual CO2 emissions from almost five Danes according to Statistics Denmark or 275,000 kilometers of driving in an average passenger car.
At Denmark's largest chain of car inspection centers, Applus+ Bilsyn, they see a digital transformation as an easy way to reduce CO2 emissions.
– Our Spanish parent group has committed to becoming CO2-neutral by 2050, and at Applus+ Bilsyn we strive every day to contribute to that goal.
– An obvious step on the way would be to be allowed to issue inspection reports digitally, says Per V. Rasmussen, director of Applus+ Bilsyn.
Danish vision centers already use digital systems to record and store vision data, but the law requires that the vision report be printed and given to the customer.
– We have the technology, and we have the will – the only thing we lack is the permit, says Per V. Rasmussen.
– If the authorities allowed a digital solution, we could eliminate a large amount of paper waste overnight and make the inspection process easier for both customers and employees.
Applus+ Bilsyn has asked the Danish Road Traffic Authority to change the rules for issuing inspection reports so that they can use a digital solution instead of paper.
