Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important focus for associations across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia and the US.
As well as environmental responsibility, for many it’s also about operating efficiently, reducing waste and making better use of limited resources.
Technology has a role to play in all of these areas.
The systems used by your association affect how you manage data, deliver services, communicate with members and run day-to-day operations. The right technology can help reduce waste and unnecessary effort, while giving your team and members more efficient ways to get things done.
Here are six ways the right technology, including an AMS like Membes, can support a more sustainable approach.
Moving everyday workflows online can reduce paper use, printing, postage and the manual administration that often sits behind them.
With the right digital tools, associations can:
Allow members to join, renew and manage their own details online
Replace paper-based forms and processes with digital workflows
Deliver invoices, certificates, communications and other documents electronically
Use online registration, voting and other member services
The benefit goes beyond reducing paper. Digital processes can also make it easier for members to interact with your association and free your team from repetitive administrative work.
Sustainability is also about using resources where they have the greatest impact.
When member and operational data is held in one place in modern, unified platforms like Membes AMS, associations can get a clearer picture of what’s working and where resources are being underused.
This can help teams:
Identify events, programs or services with lower levels of engagement
Improve planning based on participation and engagement data
Communicate more selectively with relevant member groups
Reduce unnecessary activity and duplicated effort.
Better data doesn't just support better decisions. It can help associations direct their time, budget and resources where they can deliver the most value.
In-person events and meetings remain important, but not every interaction needs to happen face to face.
Technology can make it easier to supplement face to face events through:
Webinars and online events
Virtual training and education
Online board and committee meetings
Digital member engagement and networking
This can reduce travel-related emissions while also making it easier for members in regional and remote areas to participate.
Sustainability is also about choosing digital infrastructure that not only lasts but also grows with your association. Rather than being locked into a single vendor for all functions, an open ecosystem like Membes AMS lets associations:
select the right partners for their needs and connect their AMS with specialist tools - whether that’s payments, learning, or community tools
avoid unnecessary duplication of functionality
support local providers
extend the technology lifespan and protect their long-term investment.
The environmental cost of technology isn't limited to the day-to-day running of a system.
Rebuilding or replacing a system also means development costs, resources, infrastructure and time.
A SaaS-based AMS can help reduce this impact by:
delivering ongoing updates, improvements and new functionality as part of the platform, rather than requiring major redevelopment projects every few years
avoiding the associated costs, disruption and environmental impact of redevelopment and duplicated infrastructure.
With cloud-based SaaS platforms like Membes AMS, hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the underlying infrastructure is shared across many customers (just like Microsoft 365 or Xero for example) - rather than each organisation needing its own dedicated servers. This results in a reduced per-customer carbon footprint.
A study by Accenture and AWS found:
AWS cloud infrastructure is up to 4.1 times more energy efficient than on-premises infrastructure
that optimised workloads can reduce carbon emissions by up to 99%.
Furthermore:
Using cloud-based infrastructure allows associations to access ongoing sustainability improvements like these, without owning and maintaining the underlying hardware themselves.
For most associations, sustainability isn't about making one dramatic change. It's about making better choices across everyday operations — reducing unnecessary waste, using resources efficiently and finding more effective ways to deliver services.
Technology is an important part of that picture.
Membes AMS brings these capabilities together in one platform — helping associations reduce paper and manual processes, make better use of their data and deliver more services digitally, while providing a cloud-based foundation that can evolve with their needs.
For associations looking to make sustainability a more practical part of how they operate, technology is a good place to start.