Digital Documentation vs Paper: Which One Is Greener for Clinics?

When it comes to sustainability in healthcare, energy-intensive facilities and medical waste often take centre stage. Yet one of the sector’s quietest contributors to global emissions rarely makes headlines: paper.

A study shows that healthcare sector accounts for approximately 4–5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and printed records, patient letters, and manual documentation remain a persistent source of carbon and operational waste across many systems.

As the sector embraces digital transformation, digital healthcare technologies (DHTs) offer a promising yet complex path forward. From electronic patient records to AI-enabled automation, these tools can both reduce and increase emissions depending on how they’re deployed. According to the UK Energy Research Centre, the challenge lies not in resisting digitalisation, but in designing it sustainably to ensure the carbon cost of servers and software doesn’t outweigh the gains from ditching legacy, paper-heavy processes.

Early results are promising. A case study by NHS Digital comparing paper-based communication to digital correspondence found a 97.8% reduction in emissions per appointment letter, saving over 1,100 tonnes of CO2e annually. That’s equivalent to the carbon footprint of more than 262,000 outpatient attendances. It shows a powerful signal of the scale digital change can achieve when deployed at system level.

These benefits go beyond operational carbon savings.

Digital channels streamline processes, reduce resource waste, and enable low-carbon alternatives to travel, mailing, and manual record-keeping. They also align with the NHS’s broader Net Zero strategy, proving that sustainability and efficiency can and must go hand in hand.

While digital documentation may come with its own energy footprint, well-designed, interoperable, and clinically integrated digital systems can deliver net-positive environmental outcomes. The right infrastructure contributes to a greener, more resilient healthcare future.

Balancing Trade‑Offs: Paper vs Digital

The shift away from paper must be carefully managed to ensure that efficiency gains translate into meaningful carbon reductions, not just convenience.

The core argument in favour of digital lies in its ability to streamline workflows and lower resource consumption. Telemedicine is a prime example. Numerous studies, including a recent analysis confirm that virtual consultations significantly reduce healthcare’s carbon footprint, largely by eliminating the need for patient travel. Reported emissions savings range from 0.7 to 372 kg CO₂e per consultation, depending on the clinical setting and geography. While the energy use of telehealth systems themselves is minimal, the environmental impact of reduced transport is substantial, particularly in rural or specialist care scenarios.

Digitising clinical documentation presents a promising path to reduce the healthcare sector’s environmental impact. By eliminating the need for printing, physical storage, internal mailing, and the manual destruction of records, digital records can streamline operations and lower carbon intensity. Yet as healthcare systems scale their digital capabilities, the environmental payoff is not guaranteed. The underlying architecture including how platforms are built, deployed, and maintained, determines whether that potential is realised or undermined.

Although digitalisation can reduce environmental harms, technologies could also be implemented in ways that do not lead to reductions. Indeed, given the paradoxical increase in energy use associated with the introduction of energy-saving technologies, or "rebound effect", digital innovation may increase resource use with minimal change to health outcomes.

Poorly optimised platforms, frequent hardware replacements, and carbon-heavy cloud configurations can counteract the very savings digitalisation aims to deliver. In this context, “paperless” doesn’t automatically equate to “greener.” Responsible digital transformation demands deliberate choices: energy-efficient software design, extended device lifecycles, and cloud providers that meet stringent sustainability standards. Systems must also monitor and mitigate unintended consequences, such as increased appointment volumes or duplicative prescribing seen in some telemedicine deployments, lest digital convenience drive higher resource consumption overall.

On the other hand, digital innovation offers multiple levers to reduce healthcare’s carbon footprint. According to the BMJ, these include improving the energy efficiency of facilities through AI-enabled building controls, optimising resource purchasing via predictive analytics, and enabling more targeted clinical decision-making with large datasets. Real-time monitoring of utilities, digital imaging in place of film, and virtual visits instead of physical appointments are already demonstrating measurable carbon reductions in many Trusts. Likewise, ambient voice tools and electronic records replace paper-based systems while preserving audit trails and clinical quality.

Telemedicine and remote monitoring may also reduce emissions not just by cutting travel, but by catching complications earlier, potentially avoiding high-intensity care downstream. When thoughtfully deployed, these technologies can enable smaller, more sustainable physical infrastructures, reduce unnecessary interventions, and improve patient outcomes.

Yet equity and ethics must remain front of mind. Without careful design, digital tools may widen gaps in access for underserved populations, especially those with limited internet connectivity or lower digital literacy. Privacy, interoperability, and clinician workload must also be considered in parallel with sustainability goals.

The green promise of digital healthcare is real, but only when supported by governance, measurement, and intentional design. The challenge for health systems is not whether to go digital, but how to do so in a way that reduces emissions, enhances outcomes, and avoids creating new forms of waste or inequity in the process.

Motics and the Path to Low-Carbon Documentation

To truly unlock the environmental benefits of digital transformation, tools must be designed not just for speed, but for sustainability. That means reducing reliance on energy-intensive infrastructure, eliminating paper waste, and embedding seamlessly into existing clinical workflows. This is where Motics makes a meaningful difference.

How Motics Drives Climate‑Smart Documentation

Built with efficiency and integration in mind, Motics aligns with NHS Greener principles and climate-conscious healthcare design. Its lightweight agentic AI platform automates everyday admin tasks while helping reduce the environmental cost of documentation:

Motics’ AI-driven agents streamline documentation and communication while actively reducing environmental waste. The Scribe Agent captures clinical conversations in real time and turns them into structured notes, saving clinicians up to 2.1 hours per day and removing the need for handwritten or printed records. The Phone Agent answers calls in under two seconds, resolving 80% of routine queries without staff escalation—cutting down on callback slips, paper logs, and delays. Meanwhile, the Email Agent drafts accurate, timely responses by pulling live appointment and patient data, improving reply times by 83% and reducing repeated messages.

In one real-world deployment, these combined efficiencies enabled a care team to reduce care plan documentation time from 30 hours to just over 11 hours per week, and full assessments from 60 to 20 hours—a 40-hour weekly gain. These savings not only reclaim time but also significantly cut down on printing, storage, and energy use. And because Motics integrates directly with EHRs through lightweight APIs, it eliminates the need for extra hardware or energy-intensive data exports, ensuring a lower-carbon footprint by design.

For clinics seeking to take the first step, documentation offers an easy entry point. Start by reviewing your current printing, paper use, and archiving habits. Then compare them to the time and resource savings made possible by intelligent tools like Motics.

Want to explore your potential carbon savings? Book a demo to see how Motics helps clinics cut waste—while giving clinicians more time to care.

Published by the Motics Editorial Team