A friend of mine who is a lawyer at a Bay Street firm recently asked me to guess how many sheets of paper were consumed at his firm's Toronto headquarters in a year. The answer was quite astounding - 36 million. That is approximately equivalent to 4,320 trees according to estimates from Conserveatree.com.
The persistence of paper in modern life is something that has long puzzled me. Compared to other commodities that we are grudgingly dependent on, it seems to me that the use of paper is something that we can more readily reduce. A paperless office or school is not that far fetched of a proposition. The technology is already here. Clipboards can be jettisoned for Tablet PC's and paper-based forms can be converted to iForms such as the ones that are so popular with Intelex clients. The use of banknotes is declining rapidly as more consumers choose to transact business using electronic means. Even public libraries are now accessible by the click of a mouse as companies like Google relentlessly digitize millions of volumes.
Examining the extent of the environmental impact of the paper industry makes a case for why drastic reduction of paper use should be given a higher priority than it is currently afforded.
- 42% percent of industrial wood harvested is used for paper
- The paper industry is the 4th largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States
- Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste
- Forests store 50% of the earth's terrestrial carbon. They are essential "carbon sinks" that hold carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming
- More than 50% of the world';s forests have already been cleared or burned
- The paper industry contributes 9% of the US manufacturing sector's carbon emissions
In the recent awakening to the planet's environmental challenges, the focus of attention has largely been on the task of discovering alternative sources of energy. While this is an effort that deserves continued devotion, we may be overlooking other problems for which the solutions might be more readily attained.
