Why print is sustainable, not sacrilegious

There is a common misconception that because paper is made from trees that printing is a major cause for global warming and further climate change. However, that is the first misconception… paper isn’t always made from trees. There is a wide variety of different materials that can be used to create paper, recyclable materials are always being used to create paper as a way of making sure that printing does not contribute to global deforestation. It is important to note that when print is made from trees however, that it is not wasteful. Paper is one of the most recycled material in the world.

You may think that there are other forms of communication other than print, such as digital communication; mobile phones, computers, social media, websites etc. But have you ever thought about what occurs behind close doors to keep the servers up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year? These servers require a constant supply of electricity to stay turned on, this electricity is very rarely created sustainably. Also, these servers create a lot of thermal energy which requires cooling to make sure this doesn’t lead to the servers malfunctioning.

Your response to the previous statement may be… “print production is a cause of global greenhouse gas emissions and uses fossil fuel based energy”. However, most of the energy used for creating print is renewable and carbon emissions are very low.