In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, becoming more “green” is one resolution that few can find fault with. Unfortunately, green printing is difficult, if not impossible, to clearly define. It all depends on the angle the issue is looked at, or how it is perceived by an observer. The biggest contributor to print being seen as a non-green technology is its use of natural resources. Substrates need to be created, transported to a print shop, printed, shipped to the buyer of print, and stored in inventory. There are a lot of steps in this process which often result in a waste of resources, particularly when the printed material is never used (an estimated 30% of print is never “consumed”; that is, it is thrown away because it is outdated or no longer needed).

Electronic content and display are perceived to use energy only when consumed by a recipient. There is no transportation required and no waste of paper. However, there is a large and growing hidden use of energy: servers. Today, servers consume more than 2% of the U.S.’s energy consumption. Some analysts project that servers will account for 10% of the U.S.’s energy consumption by 2020. Regardless of outcome, the energy that servers consume imposes a large and growing toll on the environment.

Most print can be recycled. The toxic waste associated with disposing of electronic devices, which often have a life of 2 to 5 years, is a very large, hidden cost of electronic content. Once print is created and delivered, it consumes no additional resources. Electronic content consumes resources in perpetuity, growing exponentially as the content is stored on servers that continue to consume energy.