Customers are using invoices to showcase environmental impact without extra effort

07/2025

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Challenge

Solution

Results

SMEs across Australia and New Zealand want to show their commitment to the environment. The challenge? Most businesses struggle to communicate their sustainability efforts in a way that actually reaches their clients.

But, how do you consistently remind clients about your environmental actions without sounding preachy or adding extra work to your already busy schedule?

The answer lies in a document clients already pay close attention to: your invoices. Invoices demand attention and are usually treated as purely transactional documents instead of powerful communication tools.

Finding the missing piece

Businesses have started asking themselves a simple question: What if every invoice could automatically showcase their environmental impact? They know what they want, but struggle to the right solution. Most carbon accountants or sustainability solutions focus only on measuring business' carbon footprint in which the output are reports.

Not everything is about having fancy reports. Not every business needs to submit tenders. Some businesses just want to find a way to communicate their environmental impact within the natural flow of their business.

The solution they are searching needs to be automatic and 'set and forget'. With the CarbonInvoice App businesses have been using our invoice Xero features to activate a carbon action on their invoices.

Environmental action becomes visible

Every business is different and chooses to communicate in their own way. The ones who want to communicate through invoices choose to activate a line on their Xero invoices to show how they're funding native trees in their local community. Once it is set up, there's no manual updating, no extra work.

Each invoice becomes a gentle reminder that working with your business is having a positive impact. It's not about making grand claims or lengthy explanations – it's about consistently showing real action happening on the daily.

"Now every invoice we send includes a line at the bottom saying how many native trees that income helped us to fund and we're mitigating our carbon emissions every month." - Callum Armstrong

Great client engagement

The carbon action line on the invoices are great conversation starters. Clients often respond with questions about trees or their general carbon actions and how they're doing it. These conversations are more than just professional exchanges, they're an opportunity to talk about something new and different that sets businesses apart.

"We love communicating the carbon cost and the native trees we are funding on every invoice. For an executive search firm focussed on supply chain, communicating the actions we're taking to clients this way is absolutely gold!" - Stephanie Martinez

Set and forget communication

The best part? There's no additional work required. Once the system is set up, invoice messaging happens automatically. Business owners don't need to remember to update tree counts, calculate environmental impact, or manually add sustainability messaging. The accounting software integration handles everything behind the scenes.

This automation means busy SME owners can focus on running their business while consistently communicating their environmental values. It's sustainability communication that works even when you're too busy to think about it.

The result is effortless environmental communication that reaches every client, every month, through a document they're guaranteed to read. It's simple, authentic, and surprisingly effective at showcasing the positive impact of your business relationships on the local environment.

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