[OKC] Being Pushed Towards a Paperless Existence? Not As Green As We Might Think

[Shauna Lawyer Struby]

Money quote from this article - about lifecycle analysis.

 

"If we allow ourselves to be misled by false dilemmas or deceived into
making unsustainable choices, distal concerns about destruction of the
environment and the decline our forests will soon become a harsh and
uncomfortable reality. Instead, ask the next companies you buy paper,
printed media, hosting services or electronic devices from to provide you
with an Environmental Product Declaration that is based a standards-based
lifecycle analysis. If they can't provide you with proof that their green
claims can be verified, you might like to write a letter to the FTC asking
them to enforce the green marketing guidelines that require environmental
marketing claims to be substantiated."

 

Being Pushed Towards a Paperless Existence? Not As Green As We Might Think

by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 04.15.10

Science & Technology

 

The debate on whether or not going green means going paperless is still a
hot one. While digitizing much of our once-printed media saves on tree pulp,
it doesn't necessarily save trees. A new article from GreenBiz calls into
question just how much more environmentally friendly - if at all - our
digital world is over our printed one and if it actually leads towards more
deforestation. Highlighting how the talk about digital being an eco-friendly
alternative for paper is all too often just empty chatter, digital media is
shown to be just as guilty of killing trees.

 

GreenBiz writes, "[A]ll too often proponents of digital media and paperless
communication fail to provide credible evidence to support their claims."

 

The fact is, while digital media like e-books relieves us of the immediate
awareness of the resources we're consuming (we are no long literally holding
a dead, processed tree in our hands), it doesn't relieve us of the fact that
we are still sucking up natural resources - and a lot of them - in order to
read that very same novel.

 

Full article here :::
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/04/14/going-paperless-not-green-and-tree-f
riendly-you-think 

 

Shauna, OKC

Imagine, innovate, create, collaborate

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P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

 

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