Data Shows Digital Notarizations Help Remove 800K Cars From Roads

September 20, 2022

New data from Notarize and The Bridgespan Group shows the positive social return on investment and positive environmental impact of online notarizations.

The findings show that Notarize’s platform leads to material positive environmental impacts for notorious paper, car and shipping-dependent industries like real estate, financial services and automotive by reducing their dependencies on processes that produce greenhouse gas (GHG). By 2031, digitizing the entire notarization market across all industries is expected to reduce nearly four million metric tons of GHG emissions, or the equivalent of over 800,000 cars a year, according to the data.

According to Notarize, 1.25 billion documents are notarized in the U.S. each year, and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these notarizations overwhelmingly took place in-person.

“We have been diligently building the infrastructure needed to make remote online notarizations compliant, simple and secure since 2015,” said Pat Kinsel, founder and CEO of Notarize. “We launched the company knowing we could expand access to notaries, while also evolving the legacy process to make it more delightful for customers. Years later, a global pandemic created a greater need for safety and convenience for transactions, and now online notarizations also have the ability to support pen-and-paper industries in their ESG goals. The data tells us just how impactful this is—not only for consumers but also for waste prevention in these very traditional businesses.”

Key findings of the report found that transitioning to remote online notarizations leads to:

  • A 10% decrease in printing on a per-notarization basis
  • A reduction of 1.9 Kg of GHG emissions per-notarization in ecommerce transactions
  • A reduction of 2.3 Kg of GHG emissions per-notarization in business transactions
  • A staggering 9.8 Kg reduction of GHG emissions per-notarization for real-estate transactions
  • Rural and suburban areas are on average 33.5 and 7.8 miles round trip, respectively, and the biggest contributor to GHG emissions per-notarization

In July, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday night by a vote of 336-90 passed a series of bills rolled into a package that included the ALTA-supported Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic (SECURE) Notarization Act (H.R. 3962).

The SECURE Notarization Act would:

  • Permit immediate nationwide use of remote online notarization (RON)
  • Create national minimum standards for its use
  • Provide certainty for the interstate recognition of RON

The bipartisan SECURE Notarization Act was introduced in the House by Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND). It has 128 cosponsors in the House. Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Mark Warner (D-VA) have introduced a companion bill in the Senate. The bill has 11 cosponsors in the Senate.

The SECURE Notarization Act includes critically important security standards to protect consumers, including requirements for two-way audiovisual communication, multifactor authentication and tamper-evident technology.


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].