Galaxy News

Need for Efficiency Drives Printing Industry Toward Sustainability

Michael V. Ring
President
Xeikon America Inc.

When someone mentions the printing industry to you, does it bring to mind images of emissions of greenhouse gases, massive paper waste and consumption of huge amounts of energy?

Today’s reality is very different from those stereotypical images. Thanks to consumers’ demand for more customized, 1-to-1 marketing, and the accompanying shorter consumer packaged goods product lifecycles, there is tremendous pressure throughout the printing industry supply chain for greater efficiency and less waste, which in turn is driving sustainability improvements.

As the Printing Industries of America points out, running a sustainable printing business requires a holistic approach, rather than a disjointed set of efforts. First, it includes ensuring that the actual product you are printing (whether it be a wine bottle label or a bank statement) and the raw materials required to produce it are sustainably sourced. Second, the manufacturing process, which includes pre-press, printing and post-press, must be carried out in a sustainable way. Third, the printer’s operation itself, including the building, transportation and use of energy, must be sustainably-run.

Thanks to the need for more production efficiency and flexibility, we’re seeing progress on each of these sustainability fronts in our industry.

For the rest of the story . . .

E-Book vs. P-Book, Round 2-

By Richard Romano on December 22nd, 2010

The Sierra Club checks in on how “green” e-books and e-readers are compared to printed books. I was all prepared to get my dander up, but they were surprisingly a bit more reasoned than others vis-à-vis the debate:

unless you’re a fast and furious reader, the energy required to manufacture and then dispose of an e-reader is probably greater than what’s needed to make a traditional book. If you’re reading 40 or more books per year on your e-reader, that would be the right choice. But if you use it only occasionally, probably better to stick to a “regular” book. This conclusion is reinforced by a study referenced on the website of TerraPass, a carbon offset business. Unfortunately, the study itself is not available for publication but its authors said e-readers are the more environmentally responsible choice only if you are reading in excess of 23 books per year.

One thing to do harp on as part of the “greenness” is the harvesting of trees to make paper—I do wish people would stop conflating harvesting crops with some sort of vegecide. By that logic, harvesting carrots or lettuce is environmentally bad since you’re “killing plants.” And people also harvest trees to make lumber and I don’t see anyone out there saying “Think about the environment before you build a house.”

For the rest of the story see:

http://blogs.whattheythink.com/going-green/2010/12/e-book-vs-p-book-round-2/

IP says paper use is greener than going digital

A new push by International Paper stresses the idea that using paper is good for trees and forests.

The Memphis-based papermaker's new "Go Paper. Grow Trees." campaign is intended to show consumers a direct correlation between paper and environmental stewardship in an attempt to refute the notion that "going paperless" is a pathway to green salvation.

Teri Shanahan, IP's vice president of commercial printing, said she knows the idea seems counterintuitive. She also readily admitted that the paper industry hasn't done a good job of helping consumers connect the dots.

"People think that if you use less paper, you'll save a tree," Shanahan said. "While one particular tree might not be harvested under that scenario, the whole forest might not have an opportunity to stay as a forest."

One-third of the U.S. is forested, according to the campaign; of that, 750 million acres are privately owned and most of those owners are tree farmers. These farmers plant about 4 million trees per day, about "three to four times more than they harvest," Shanahan said, to replenish their stock.

As a result, tree farmers have a financial incentive to be good stewards of the forests, according to the campaign, which could otherwise be leveled for agriculture or development.

Shanahan said electronic payments and communication are not "environmentally free" and that many companies that are pushing paperless payments are looking to get their money faster, not necessarily trying to be environmentally friendly.

"I understand why they want to do it and I don't blame them for trying, but if they just say it's more convenient to bank online or we'll give you $10 to bank online, that's fine," Shanahan said. "They should not be making the claims that this will somehow help the environment if you bank online."

A separate push is now under way by the American Forest and Paper Association to help toughen laws on "greenwashing," falsely marketing a product as environmentally friendly. In October, the Federal Trade Commission posted new proposed rules for its Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims.

A friend of mine, Zac Bolan, wrote an interesting article about the myth of the 'FREE' Vista Print or 24 hour business cards offers.

When I get a phone call from someone I've not heard from for several years, I get suspicious. They want something, there's no doubt about it… you can hear it in their voice. First… greetings, followed by feigned interest in current events, "Long time no see, buddy, what's new?" Then comes the offer – something seemingly innocuous… lunch maybe? Ah, the free lunch. There's nothing like a free lunch. Food tastes so much better when somebody else pays, right? That's what I kept telling myself as I entered the sushi place to meet with Martin, an old acquaintance I had not seen in years. We made small talk and ordered food. Naturally, the conversation turned to work and I unsurprisingly confirm that I'm still working in print. Martin then reveals that he is starting a business. At that point I can see it coming like a freight train in the night. "Zac, old buddy," Martin says with a grin, "glad to hear you're still working in printing. Can you hook a friend up with some free business cards?" There's a perception in this world that anyone working in print can pull free business cards out of a hat like some thirdrate magician. It's true anyone can run a few cards on a copier, but reality for those of us in the biz is that we either have a costly digital press to feed or we have the expense of plates, ink and paper, not the mention a pressman's time… none of which were free the last time I did the math. I smiled, told Martin I would look into it for him then and started racking my brain trying to figure out how I would earn my "free" lunch. Whose idea was this anyways? In one form or another, business cards have been around for ages. First popularized in 17th century France as visiting cards during the reign of Louis XIV, these early calling cards were simply playing cards inscribed with a gentleman's handwritten note. The visitor would present the card to the servant answering the door who would in turn deliver it to the master of the manse. It wasn't unit later in the 17th century that the use of trade cards became popular in London and throughout England to promote businesses. These trade cards were stylistically much closer to today's business cards, perhaps showing a graphic illustrating the business, some promotional phrase and an address. Initially, these single-colour cards were produced by letterpress or woodcut. During the 1800s, the rise of lithography in Europe triggered the evolution of fullcolour trade cards. As newspapers became more commonplace and accessible as advertising vehicles, however, businesses flocked to this new medium and the use of trade cards diminished. It was not until the use of visiting and trade cards became popular in 19th century America that the business card as we know it came into being. While styles and materials have changed over the years, the effectiveness of this simple medium remains unchecked. Even with the advent of digital technology, and its impact on print, there is still no effective replacement for the simple business card. Hasta La Vistaprint, baby Anyone who has not been living under a rock knows about Vistaprint. The name is synonymous with the free business card, so it made sense to start my quest for Martin's free cards there. While many printers have struggled to make a buck with Webto- print, Vistaprint has achieved unrivaled success serving the needs of the Small Office, Home Office (SOHO) market segment. The company's viral "free business card" offer with its Web address printed on the back has done for commodity print what Microsoft's Hotmail did for e-mail. Vistaprint has produced 5-billion free business cards since setting up shop back in the 1990s. Vistaprint's Web-to-print portal is nicely organized but a fairly mundane affair offering a variety of free and low-cost marketing products aimed at its target demographic. The humble business card was Vistaprint's first online product and the foundation for its empire. The company's free-card offer still holds the prominent spot on the Vistaprint homepage. Determined to cash in on this offer (in three easy steps), I decided to make myself some business cards to see how it all worked. They were "free" after all, so I boldly clicked the Get Started button. My first stop on the road to free cards was the customization page containing text input fields, 42 free templates to choose from as well as an enlarged live preview area. After scrolling through the available templates, I chose an "eco-looking" design and entered my personal information in the appropriate fields. As I finished typing each line, my information appeared in the live preview. The customization page offers ample up-sell options ranging from Advanced Editing ($11.99); better templates ($23.99) or custom photos and logos ($29.99). However, my goal was to get free cards, so I simply ignored the offers. I anxiously clicked the next button where I was prompted to log in or register as a new customer. Not wanting to clog my regular inbox with multiple messages from Vistaprint, I created a separate Gmail account specifically for the occasion. On the next page, I was offered an up-sell to 500 cards, as well as further discounts and offers… I declined, as I wanted FREE business cards! On the next page, the company pushed better paper but I held my ground, more determined than ever to get free business cards. Without hesitation I clicked "next," landing on a page offering to print a calendar or appointment block on the back of my FREE cards for $6.99 to $11.99. Free! Free! Free! I want FREE! When I stubbornly clicked "next," the up-sell dam burst, spilling out a plethora of marketing tchotchkes onto my desktop: Pens, rubber stamps, stickers, mobile business cards that I could send from my iPhone, all these and another five pages of personalized trinkets could be mine with a "click" and a few dollars. I resisted temptation and pushed on by pressing the "next" button once again. Arghhh! Accessories – another page of trinkets like business-card cases, t-shirts and coffee mugs. I assumed these would have been included in the tchochke assault, but for some reason they warranted their own page. I clicked "next," again! Do I want to order a Website? No! Please, just give me free business cards. With trepidation I once again clicked "next," having absolutely no idea what they could be selling me next. I was greeted, rather anticlimatically, with the checkout page. Finally, I could consummate my transaction and get my free business cards! However, after entering my shipping information it became clear that some money would have to change hands before I could cross into the promised land. Only the printing is free as it turns out, the shipping and handling costs money. Vistaprint offers a variety of shipping options ranging from Slow (21 days) to Rush (three days). Free was off the table at this point, but I still wanted to get my cards as cheaply as possible so I selected Slow shipping. My free business cards would now cost me $7.90 + GST and my "3 easy steps" involved navigating through more than a dozen Web pages. Twenty-four Skidoo Now that my Vistaprint order was churning away in their servers destined for Windsor, Ontario, no doubt waiting for the right gang-run, I continued my quest to find a truly free business card. Naturally, I turned to Google, typed "free business cards" into the search field, clicked "I'm Feeling Lucky" and got… Vistaprint. Okay, let's try that again, but selecting "Google Search". This yielded more results. Vistaprint still dominated the front page. I clicked down in the search fields and found several promising leads such as www.freebusinesscards.org, justfreebusinesscards.com and freebusinesscardsonline. net, but these all just redirected to Vistaprint! I found other sites offering free cards but most harboured either hidden charges or ugly templates (and many had both). Just when I was ready to give up, I stumbled onto print24.com. Print24 is the North American face to Britain's UnitedPrint franchise, perhaps the only credible challenger to the Vistaprint hegemony. The company's homepage is Spartan, but easy to navigate with the free design and print button prominently displayed. I clicked my way into the online design interface and was immediately greeted with drop-down menus offering hundreds of snappy templates, plain type-only cards and the ability to upload a JPEG composition. I chose an artsy template and got busy building my design. The Print24 layout engine offers several formatting options, including a variety of fonts, type sizes and colours. Additionally users can place text or move type anywhere on the card face. Within a few minutes I had designed a colourful, attractive-looking card that did not scream FREE. Reassuringly, the only products sold on the Print24 Website have something to do with my kind of print. There were no mouse pads, rubber stamps, t-shirts or coffee cups to be had. One more click took me to the shipping options page where I was offered one choice, a $14.95 shipping and handling charge promising 6-day delivery. Sigh! These cards would not be free either and, in fact, were twice the price of Vistaprint. Still, I was quite pleased with my online design, so I decided to shell out the money and see what Print24 would deliver. I clicked "Purchase" and started the wheels turning in some unknown location. The bun's in the oven If this were a cooking show, I'd simply reach into my second oven and pull out the two business card orders, mouthwatering and ready to eat. But, life's not like that so I patiently waited for the postman to deliver my cards. As promised, the Print24 cards arrived first, packed in a huge box large enough for 30 orders of cards. I cut through a sarcophagus of packing tape to find my little box of 250 cards suspended in a cradle of those little inflated plastic bubbles – the packaging alone was worth 15 bucks. I anxiously pried one of my new cards out of the box to admire my online handiwork. As advertised, my shiny new cards were printed in full colour on sturdy 100-lb gloss stock. I pulled out my trusty linen tester and closely examined the print quality. While it was impossible to be certain which machine produced these cards, I was confident that they were digital in origin rather than offset. One of the card's edges had a rough feel to it, likely indicating that it had been slit, rather than cut. However, the nice heft of the stock and smooth glossy look compensated for the tactile shortcomings of a digital workflow. About a week later my Vistaprint package arrived, packaged in a more sensible box that was durable enough to protect, yet much smaller. I opened the package and pulled out a card from the middle of the stack. The print was very sharp and the screens considerably finer than Print24's product due to Vistaprint's offset workflow. However, the stock was a disappointing utility-grade 80-lb matte cover and though smoothly cut, felt disposable to the touch. There ain't no such thing I met my friend Martin for lunch to share what I had learned about free business cards. I explained Vistaprint's approach of offering a full range of marketing services and products to its SOHO and microbusiness customers. While these cards were simply adequate, Vistaprint provides its users with one-stop shopping for everything else. I then showed him my Print24 cards and explained the differences between the two samples, finishing by flipping over both cards to reveal what they had in common, the advertising on the backside. When I revealed that shipping and handling was not included, Martin rolled his eyes and chuckled. "So, the cards aren't really free and you're advertising somebody else's business?" he asked. This revelation took our conversation in a different direction. During lunch I explained the conventional design and print process, so that Martin could make an informed decision about his personal marketing materials. While we both agreed that free cards had their place in the marketing ecosystem, Martin decided that it was in his best interest to spend a little more money for something unique to promote his business. As we refilled our coffees, I expounded the virtues of shopping locally and gave Martin the names of a couple of local printers who specialized in business cards and promotional printing. He smiled and thanked me for shedding a little light on free business cards. I paid for lunch. It was renowned science fiction author Robert Heinlein who first popularized the libertarian mantra "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" in the 1966 novel The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. His story describes life in a lunar colony based on pragmatic principles of value for contribution. In other words – everything has a price and nobody rides for free. Sounds like the free business card world, doesn't it?

Public opinion polls show that concern about the environment rises and falls based on the state of the economy and other factors, but concern about the negative impacts associated with using paper and printing continues to rise. Nothing captures the essence of these feelings more vividly than the signature line appearing at the foot of more and more emails: “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”

This seemingly well-intentioned call to action, as well as others like “Sign up for paperless billing, help the environment and save trees” confront consumers with a false dilemma and present a forced choice that may have unintended consequences. The false dilemma is: “By using paper to print your email or by receiving paper bills you are knowingly degrading the environment, destroying forests and/or killing trees.” The forced choice is: “Eliminate your use of paper or feel like a guilty hypocrite.”
paper mill in wash.jpg

What’s implied is that digital media is the environmentally preferable choice and that print media is the environmentally destructive choice. But is it possible that digital media could be more destructive to the environment and a greater threat to trees, bees, rivers and forests in the United States than paper-making or printing?

A heightened sense of awareness about the environment has developed in recent years. In particular, feelings of guilt and concern are on the rise about the use of paper and its alleged impact on the fate of our trees, forests and the environment. Are these feelings justified?

The story of sustainable media is a “bad news/good news” story. The bad news is that the public’s concern about our forests and the environment is justified. The good news is that seeing beyond the green rhetoric and rethinking the lifecycle impacts of both print and digital media will play a major role in allowing us to enjoy forests and conserve our environment. more at MEDIASHIFT

“This is a sham,” Cynthia was up in arms, “A friend told me that there actually might not be any FSC-certified pulp in the FSC-certified paper that I buy! Then what about recycled pulp and … what is all this talk about auditing and … how can I trust anybody anymore?”

papertipOkay, I never said eco-certification was easy, but Cynthia’s friend definitely didn’t do the best job at explaining the ins and outs. So let me try.

FSC, and SFI for that matter, both certify forests to ensure they are managed in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Yes, they have differing standards, but I’ll write about this aspect in the coming weeks.

For now, let’s just keep it simple and say this: Both FSC and SFI care deeply about our forests and the environment. Their respective labels provide you and me with the assurance that the paper products we’re purchasing come from forests managed to conserve biodiversity and support local communities.

This is what we all have heard for years now. It is a good and noble cause, and we support it.

Where does the pulp come from?
As we agree on this, we can also agree on the fact that the FSC/SFI pulp has to come from certified forests. The certification of the forest as such is the part you and I can easily understand.

An independent auditor (both SFI and FSC work with third-party auditing companies) goes out to the forest that wants to be certified and makes sure it fulfills all the criteria required by the certification model.

This doesn’t just include visiting the actual forest, but also includes aspects like: making sure the forest workers are skilled; ensuring that no pesticides are used in managing the forest or that no genetically modified trees are planted – the standards are extensive.

Once the trees are ripe (fully grown), they are harvested and brought to a certified pulp mill.

NOTE: There are only around 40 FSC-certified pulp mills in North America producing somewhere between one and three million tons of certified pulp. Some of these mills produce their own paper from this pulp, but many paper mills in North America are non-integrated (meaning they don’t make their own pulp). Non-integrated mills buy their FSC-certified pulp from those certified pulp mills on a contractual or first-come, first-serve basis.

How is the pulp handled?
If we all wanted to buy 100 percent certified papers tomorrow, there just would not be enough pulp available to keep up with the demand. So, the most common logos we see today are those of “mixed sources,” papers that contain a certain percentage of certified pulp. Are you still with me?

The original idea – and a logical one at that – was to ask the mills to ensure that the certified pulp was stored separately from the rest of the mill’s pulp and was used in the papermaking process separately and … But if you have ever been at a paper mill, this poses quite a challenge.

For one, a paper machines run 24/7 (except the yearly downtime for maintenance), so asking a mill to stop and start the machine to make certified paper is an economic impediment.

Volume Sharing
Over the years, in an attempt to make the production of certified papers economically viable, FSC and SFI have adopted a “volume credit” system. A confusing term to be sure. I prefer “average percentage.” Let me explain with an example.

A mill produces 100 tons of paper a year. It buys 10 percent of the pulp needed from a certified pulp mill. In order to not have to interrupt its workflow, the mill and certifying body agree that this 10 percent can be called out on specific paper lines the mill produces. In our case, theoretically 100 percent of the mill’s paper could be called out as 10 percent FSC /SFI certified.

Let’s take it one step further and say the mill wants to offer a specific paper line with a higher certified percentage to its customers – Brand XYZ is 20 percent certified. Now the mill can only label 50 percent of the papers it produces as 20 percent certified.

The Audit
The certifying body keeps a close eye on its mill clients and conducts yearly audits, which include lots of paperwork including checking invoices for certified pulp received to ensure that a mill doesn’t market or claim to have more certified papers than the percentage of certified pulp that it purchased allows it to claim.

Does this mean that theoretically the specific paper you and I buy does not contain the full 30 percent FSC / SFI pulp it claims? Sorry, but yes.

And by the way, the same “average percentage” principle applies to the recycled content claims made by pulp and/or paper manufacturers.

The bottom line is that we are “paying” for the overall efforts a mill makes to be sustainable and offer certified papers, thus providing our forest managers the incentive to certify, while staying economically viable.

Seeing designers worldwide struggle to stay current with new papers and paper trends inspired Sabine Lenz to create PaperSpecs, an independent and comprehensive Web-based paper selection tool and weekly e-newsletter. Growing up in Germany, she started her design career in Frankfurt, before moving on to Australia and the United States. Lenz worked on design projects ranging from corporate identities to major road shows and product launches. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, her list of clients included Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Deutsche Bank, IBM and KPMG. Lenz is a noted speaker and author on paper issues and educational topics related to the paper industry.

We have investigated becoming FSC certified and discovered that it costs somewhere between $3000 - $5000 per year and its in our humble opinon just a bookeeping expense. We feel that our enviornmental track record speaks for it self and while we cannot put the FSC logo on your printing if you ask for an FSC certified paper we can certainly purchase it, print on it, and thats the truth! And if you can't trust your printer . . . who can you trust?

According to the latest research on advertising, printed communications are making a significant contribution to the economy and have a positive impact on business. Statistics show the following:

All this and more from: International Paper
click on the downloadable link for "Down To Earth" Is it worth printing?

* Every year, an estimated 400 million units of obsolete electronics are scrapped.
* By 2010, this figure will rise to three billion units.

While advances in technology continue to improve and enrich our lives, product lifecycles are getting shorter and shorter. And that means an increasing stockpile of end-of-life equipment that needs to be managed. When discarded, much of this equipment ends up in landfills in the US, or is exported to third world countries.

* An average of 220 tons of e-waste is dumped in landfills and incinerators every year in the US alone. These toxic items constitute as much as 2-5% of the US municipal solid waste stream and continues to grow rapidly.
* As much as 50 to 80 percent of US electronic waste collected for recycling is sent to Asia.

Electronic equipment contains harmful toxins which, when released into the environment, can contaminate our water, land and air. Lead, mercury, cadmium and flame retardants are all persistent, bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs) that cause birth defects and damage to coronary, respiratory, nervous and skeletal systems.

* A single computer or television monitor contains an average of 4 to 8 pounds of lead. Monitor glass contains about 20% lead by weight. When this glass is crushed in a landfill, the lead leaches into the soil.
* Just 1/70 of a teaspoon of mercury is enough to contaminate 20 acres of a lake, rendering the fish inedible.
* In the US, municipal incineration of e-waste is the largest source of cancer-producing dioxin and among the largest point source of heavy metal contaminations in the atmosphere.

While there are many ways to dispose of unwanted electronics, there are few guarantees that the resulting e-waste will be disposed of responsibly.

GreenCitizen helps individuals and organizations recycle their electronics responsibly. We provide convenient, affordable and responsible solutions that make it easy for everyone to do their part to help save the environment from harmful electronic waste.

(CNN) -- When Dan Brown's blockbuster novel "The Lost Symbol" hit stores in September, it may have offered a peek at the future of bookselling.

On Amazon.com, the book sold more digital copies for the Kindle e-reader in its first few days than hardback editions. This was seen as something of a paradigm shift in the publishing industry, but it also may have come at a cost.

Less than 24 hours after its release, pirated digital copies of the novel were found on file-sharing sites such as Rapidshare and BitTorrent. Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times.

Digital piracy, long confined to music and movies, is spreading to books. And as electronic reading devices such as Amazon's Kindle, the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble's Nook, smartphones and Apple's much-anticipated "tablet" boost demand for e-books, experts say the problem may only get worse.

"It's fair to say that piracy of e-books is exploding," said Albert Greco, an industry expert and professor of marketing at Fordham University.

Charlie CorrAn Open Letter to the Industry, from Charlie Corr, Chief Strategist, Mimeo.com

It is increasingly popular to bash the use of paper. The industry is an easy target as everyone uses paper and the presentation of the industry is laughable (think Dunder Mifflin on The Office).

Despite the many environmentally friendly actions taken by the paper, printing and publishing industries, little is known of these efforts due to a self-inflicted inability to publicize them. Unlike the auto or fuel industries, we don’t spend any money as an industry on effective green promotion.

Think about it, paper primarily comes from trees. Trees are a renewable resource. They come from farms. You don’t see people bashing farmers, why paper? Trees improve the environment by moderating climate, improving air quality, conserving water, and harboring wildlife. According to the Department of Agriculture, one acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people. more

The Do Not Mail advisory that passed in San Francisco last March is only one indication of the environmental misperceptions regarding print. People, especially consumers, really believe that they are saving trees and consequently the planet when they choose electronic forms of communication. Industry guru Frank Romano’s Earth Day video this year, appearing on Whattheythink.com, addressed this foolishness. “We are trying to replace paper with electronic forms of communication,” Romano says. “Eliminating paper is not green. I’m sorry, the world is not going to be any better off…Electricity comes from a plant somewhere and in order to get electricity, you have to burn something, usually coal. That’s what goes into the atmosphere…Why are they picking on the printing industry? It’s one of the most responsible industries…There is a cost for all of the electronics. We grow trees and we can plant more trees. We need to show that printing is one of the most sustainable and environmentally conscious industries.” To this end, The Print Council (www.theprintcouncil.org) released a position paper titled Why Print is Green at this year’s Print 09 trade show. The report is intended for use by printers and designers to demonstrate to their customers why print media is the environmentally sound choice for communicating with the audiences they want to reach. “Our industry is a leader in recycling, sustainability and pollution control,” says Ben Cooper, Executive Director of The Print Council. “In fact we pioneered putting those concepts into widespread practice over the past three decades. But we did so quietly, to the extent that there is a lack of awareness regarding the environmentally responsible nature of print. That’s why we created and will be distributing this new position paper.” Why Print Is Green describes ten specific ways in which print is green — from the responsible products used, renewable energy sourced, increased recycling rates, improved design and delivery methods. There are still more eye-openers available in the International Paper’s Publication, Pixels vs. Paper, available as a free download on the company’s website. Go to Sustainability tab and select Education. Consider these astounding figures. • 20% Less CO2 is used per year by a person reading a daily printed newspaper versus a person reading Web-based news for 30 minutes a day. • On average it takes 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity to produce 440 pounds of paper, the typical amount of paper each individual uses in a year. That’s the equivalent of powering one computer continuously for five months. • It costs an estimated $2.8 billion of energy to leave computers sitting idly overnight in the U.S. On a CO2 basis, that’s an amount equivalent to four million cars on the road. IP writes, “The paper industry has had much more time to figure out how to be sustainable and responsible. In time, the electronics industry will do the same. But, until then, paper and printed communications have the upper hand when it comes to being sustainable. And while a balance is required between the two for effective communication, it is important to keep the above facts in mind when finding that balance.

“The fact is, both print and digital media must become increasingly more sustainable to survive, and the choices we make should be based on a data-driven comparative analysis of lifecycle, carbon footprint and total environmental impact. The paper and forest products industry has been addressing sustainability for decades, and now adheres to many third-party certification standards and government regulations. We’ve made great progress and have a true environmental story to tell. As more scientific data-driven tools are developed, evaluations based on inputs and outputs will become more balanced.”