Paper or ‘tronic?
June 30, 2009 – 6:13 pmThe June 25 issue of Environmental Leader reported on a new study from International Paper making the case that paper is actually more environmentally friendly than electronic devices.
The IP report states, among other things, that the amount of electricity to run a computer for only five months could produce enough paper for the average person to use for an entire year, and that the entire paper and pulp industry only uses enough electricity annually to power 2.76 million homes as compared to electronic data centers which use enough electricity annually to power 5.72 million homes.
They may have a point — and I’ve actually been asked about this by reporters before and made a similar point — but it’s a tough one to bear out with consumers. Here’s why:
- Our Energy Pulse study tells us only 4% of the population can peg coal fired power plants as the leading cause of the CO2 emissions that cause global warming. Thus, consumers don’t get how using power is at all bad for the environment and would immediately discount a message that plugging in a computer and sending an email is worse for the environment than handwriting a note and dropping it in the mail. (And, of course, there’s also the mental gymnastics of accounting for the environmental impact of the trucks used to transport that letter…but that’s another issue.)
- Further, our Eco Pulse study revealed that 92% of the population wouldn’t part with their computer if they found out it was bad for the environment.
So, folks simply aren’t motivated to swap their electronics for paper — no matter what the impact is on the environment. This message, it appears, is exactly the strategy/Hail Mary pass IP is hoping to employ to motivate us all back to paper. Our advice to IP: save the marketing dollars and create a new game plan.
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