Whether business or personal, financial activity has undergone a green makeover. The two emerging methods are online and mobile.

According to moneyrates.com the "benefits of online banking include less paperwork, less mail, and less driving to branch offices by bank customers, which all have a positive impact on the environment." But those benefits are being applied to other facets of the financial industry as well. Brokers have also embraced the green movement, with online and mobile trading offerings. For example, using ETrade's Mobile Pro, customers can "trade anytime, anywhere." With the advent of smartphones, mobile financing is quickly becoming norm, as institutions offer apps for the BlackBerry, Android, iPhone and iPad, among others.

Don't forget about green ATM services. "Scott Dillon, head of technology infrastructure services, notes that Wells Fargo was among the first of the banks to eliminate the use of envelopes for making deposits at ATMs, reports ZDNET. The firm is also working to eliminate paper ATM receipts. "Instead, statements are sent directly to the account-holder's email," said Dillon.

These initiatives pose beneficial to the firm, the consumer, and the environment alike. Even if just 20 percent of American households switched to online banking, it would save 150,939,615 pounds of paper and 1,811,275 trees per year, and avoid producing almost two million tons of greenhouse gases, according to PayItGreen data. So it's safe to say that green financial activity is a great environmental service and a great PR move-one that many financial firms could just right about now, ahem Goldman Sachs.

But just because it's green doesn't mean it's automatically good. When offering online and mobile finance, security becomes an issue. Firms need to make sure their online and mobile applications have adequate anti-fraud protection, as card-swipe devices and cameras can steal personal and financial information.