Print and Sustainability

Well, what is sustainability? Sustainability is "the capacity to support, maintain, or endure." (Courtesy of Wikipedia). So in the area of printing, you could say the focus would be to support, maintain, or endure different types of paper and paper products.

If you were to ask the average person about printing and the environment they would probably say that printing uses tons of paper which cuts down on the number of trees and hurts our environment. This is just one example of one of the many myths and falsehoods out there. Let's take a look at some facts about printing and the environment. You may be surprised.

Did you know?

Paper is actually a very sustainable product. So, you're probably wondering, how so? Paper is made from trees which is a renewable, natural resource. It is recyclable as well. The U.S. paper industry has made a huge emphasis on being "green". They follow a list of responsible forestry practices as well as certification and they use renewable, carbon-neutral biofuels to produce it. With the advances in paper-making technology and the awareness of the U.S. paper industry, paper is one of the most sustainable products on the planet. The World Wildlife Fund states when paper is produced responsibly, it has many advantages over other non-renewable, alternative material.

Making paper actually does not destroy forests. With today's sustainable forest management programs paper actually helps forests grow. More than 4 million trees are planted each day which is greater than what is harvested to make paper. So you could say that without paper, there would be fewer trees. And most of the forests that are being taken down for good are caused by development.

Of all the products being recycled, Paper is right near the top of the list. Only one-third of paper is made from trees being cut down. Another third is made from recycled paper and the last third is made from sawmill waste. I'd say that's pretty good as far as recycling goes. So, basically two-thirds of paper is recycled in some way.

Paper's carbon footprint isn't as high as the rumor has it. So, what is a carbon footprint, anyway? Well, it is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases, released into the atmosphere caused by a person, product, company, organization, event, etc. If we look at the entire life cycle of paper, we see that paper is broken down into three basic elements: carbon sequestration, greenhouse gases and avoided emissions. Since paper is made from a renewable resource that stores carbon, which is very important to remember, each of these elements are influenced by important characteristics that make paper's carbon footprint smaller than is expected.

E-media and electronic communication isn't necessarily more environmentally friendly than paper. How many of us hear, "go green and save trees" or "go paperless" in today's world? With major publications going from print to electronic versions it seems less and less publications are being printed. But how much of that is due to marketing strategies and to save cost in today's economy? Instead of arguing which is better between the world of paper and electronic media we should be concentrating and working together on combining the two to make the most economical and efficient strides to make both avenues sustainable.

So you may ask yourself what you can do to help. I mean, you're only one person, right? With the power of social media and the internet these facts can spread like wildfire and help educate the public. It just needs to start with one person to spread the word to others and so on and so forth down the line. Go out and research this subject too. You'll probably find a lot of surprising facts about paper and paper production. The next time you think about not printing out an email, just know that you're actually helping plant more trees by printing out that email.