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The paperless digital receipt is the future of sustainability

Green Till, an Irish start-up, developed an app where there is no room for paper waste

Green Till, a start-up based in Ireland, is thoroughly working on developing its app which aims at replacing paper receipts with digital ones. The main idea is to reduce paper waste and provide an eco-friendly alternative for both retailers and consumers.

The team behind Green Till presented the app and described the start-up’s goal during the Web Summit 2021 which took place in Lisbon.

“When we think about climate change and sustainable reactions, people other neglect little thinks like paper receipts. No matter who you are, what is your profession, either you are a retailer or consumer, we can together change this” said Gokul Gurijala, co-founder of Green Till.

As he explained, Green Till aims at consolidating the use of digital receipts around the globe. “Our mission is to keep off paper receipts from our planet and we want to replace them with digital receipts that are convenient for both retailers and consumers and are eco-friendly as well”.

In addition to wasting paper and causing an environmental burden, printed receipts have financial implications for consumers as well. As Gurijala explained, “we may not realize that, but paper receipts cost a lot to consumers. When you buy something and bring it back home and is broken but you have lost the receipt that is a financial loss. The same goes for business expenses. If you go on a conference and you spend money on your food and transportation and lost your receipts, then you can’t claim expenses from your company or your taxes”.

Consumers can keep all their receipts gathered in the Green Till Receipts app, for as long as they wish, and at any time search for receipts, products they have bought, and stores they have visited in the past. Also, consumers can add their loyalty cards to the app, so they no longer need to carry them in their wallets all the time.

“Imagine every retailer, in every street, in every city, in every country, imagine them all printing receipts every day. Where are all these receipts going?” Gurijala asked, and he noted, “the app has a lot of eco-friendly features. We can describe it as a win-win situation for retailers and consumers and more importantly for the environment”.

The next step for Green Till is to expand its consumers’ and retailers’ base. As Gurijala highlighted, “if I ask you to imagine cars in the next 5 years you would probably say electric cars. If I ask you to imagine receipts in the next 5 years, the answer is digital and there is not an established solution in the market so far”.

That is why Green Till is trying to get consumers interested in the issue of replacing paper receipts with digital ones and that was the main motivation for Gokul Gurijala, Pranay Madanala, and Ankit Patil who founded the Irish start-up together. As Gurijala underlined there is a strong engineering team behind this project working on improving the start-up’s app and providing an even more convenient and eco-friendly way of issuing, receiving, and storing receipts in the future.

George Mavridis is a freelance journalist and writer based in Greece. His work primarily covers tech, innovation, social media, digital communication, and politics. He graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication. Also, he holds an MA in Media and Communication Studies from the Malmö University of Sweden and an MA in Digital Humanities from the Linnaeus University of Sweden.