For The Golden 1 Credit Union in Sacramento, Calif. e-statements offer not only a selling point to environment conscious California residents, but saved the credit union more than $1 million in paper and postage last year.

"Last year our members saved about 60 tons of paper using electronic statements. That's the equivalent of two average-sized gray whales," said Teresa Halleck, president/CEO of The Golden 1.

Ron Daly, president/CEO of DigitalMailer said that he estimates the nation's credit unions with more than $50 million in assets have a total of about 12.5 million e-statement users who each generate 50 cents to 75 cents per month in savings. That added up to $75 million a year in industry savings.

"I came back from vacation last week and there were six new contracts on my desk," Daly said. "With the way the economy is and postage rates and gas and paper, everybody's doing it."

Daly added that DigitalMailer is looking to expand its daily notices, alerts, disaster communications systems, surveys, secure Web forms, e-marketing campaigns and online board elections.

For more articles on ways that credit unions are saving both money and the environment see our Arbor Day section in our April 28 print issue of Credit Union Times.