Low M&A activity = good for environment?

The one potential benefit to the M&A slowdown? Helping the environment…a little.

It might be a stretch, but finding even the tiniest bright spot to the weak M&A environment may help soothe the pain felt as global dealmaking dropped 30 percent in the first half of the year.

With M&A volume down, and banks tightening the rein on expenses, most of the focus has been the havoc wreaked on banks’ bottom lines and the potential impact on year-end bonuses.

One study, however, found that the M&A slowdown is actually good for the environment.

How so? A study commissioned by Merrill DataSite, which provides password-protected websites that can store documents used for due diligence, said M&A advisers jetting around Europe to work on cross-border deals emitted 98,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the past year. (How does one measure that?)

The study also says the bankers used more than 112 million pages of A4 paper (There must have been a pretty scientific way of measuring that, too). An average cross-border deal apparently involves five international flights per individual and 20,000 pages of paper. Who knew?

And why did Merrill DataSite commision such a study? Well, the company says it is enjoying a booming business as companies seek to cut costs.

So, the study concludes, as bankers travel less now, less carbon-dioxide gets emitted and less paper gets used. Bankers may not be happy, but Mother Nature is.