NEW YORK -- In a new initiative to encourage thousands more customers to switch to environmentally friendly online billing, Verizon has launched the Great Paper Escape sweepstakes. Featured is a grand prize of $10,000 to a Verizon customer who switches to paperless billing by Dec. 31, 2010.

The goal is to motivate about a quarter of a million Verizon customers to join the nearly 2.4 million customers who already receive their monthly bills online. The sweepstakes is but one front in an ongoing Verizon campaign to reduce the environmental impact of the company's business operations around the world.

"Earlier this year Verizon launched a comprehensive sustainability program to help our company and our customers reduce their impact on the environment and to conserve energy," said James Gowen, Verizon chief sustainability officer. "Through the Great Paper Escape sweepstakes we're offering customers an easy and fun way to reduce their carbon footprints while also providing a faster, more secure and clutter-free way to pay their bills."

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ)