EcoStats 2025: Figures confirm further increase in digital signatures

A-Trust's EcoStats reveal the environmental and resource effects achieved through the use of qualified electronic signatures (QES). The evaluation for 2025 shows that the use of A-Trust's digital signature solutions (ID Austria and xIDENTITY) has continued to increase, both in the handling of signature processes and in eGovernment services, thus contributing to the conservation of resources and increased efficiency.

Resource savings through digital signatures

In 2025, a total of 69.2 million digital signatures were used via A-Trust's QES. These were used on around 28 million documents, replacing numerous paper-based processes. The result is noticeable savings in paper, energy, and time. Compared to 2023 and 2024, these figures increased again, underscoring the continuing trend toward the use of digital signatures. The EcoStats calculation shows the specific resources saved in 2025 as a result:

• Paper: 97.8 million sheets of A4 paper. If stacked on top of each other, they would reach a height of about 9.8 kilometers.
• Wood: 1,051.7 tons of wood. This corresponds to saving approximately 322 trees per year.
• Water: 24.6 million liters. This is enough to supply around 330,000 people with drinking water for an entire day (at approximately 75 liters per person).
• Energy: 6.3 million kWh. This amount of energy is enough to supply around 1,800 Austrian households with electricity for an entire year.
• CO₂: 474.1 tons. This corresponds to around 3.8 million kilometers driven by car that were not incurred.

Save time - gain efficiency

In addition to the material savings, there was also a significant gain in efficiency: the digital signature saved a cumulative total of 210,325.8 hours – an average of 3.9 hours per signatory. These time savings are mainly due to the elimination of printing, scanning, and visits to government offices, as well as the ability to sign multiple documents in batches.

Sustainability becomes measurable

The EcoStats feature, which has been showing how users save resources through digital signatures since its launch, confirms once again that digitalization and sustainability go hand in hand. The combination of user-friendly technology and environmental impact makes a concrete contribution to conserving natural resources while also making everyday life more efficient for many people and organizations.

EcoStats is available to all users of the A-Trust Signature App and makes it possible to visualize one's own contribution to sustainability - for example, by reducing paper consumption, water and energy use, and CO₂ emissions.