Myth 5

1. Appeals to “Go Paperless”, “Go Green” and “Save Trees” are all too common these days as many organisations encourage their customers to switch to electronic transactions and communications. But what are the real facts? Is it really that simple?
2. These messages appear to suggest that electronic communication is more environmentally friendly than traditional, paper-based communication. Before we make such bold statements we need to look at the bigger picture.
3. As you will have read elsewhere, paper is a uniquely renewable and sustainable product. The main raw material, wood, is grown and harvested in a carefully controlled and sustainable way – so sustainable, in fact, that European forests, where most of the raw material comes from, have grown by an area the size of Switzerland in just 10 years. (1)
4. The environmental impacts of our ever-increasing digital world cannot be ignored. The ICT industry accounts for approximately 2% of global emissions, on par with emissions from the global aviation sector. (2)
5. Businesses and individuals are increasingly using ‘cloud’ services. These mega data-centres store almost everything we do online; including our web searches, our social media posts and our online statements.
6. If compared with the electricity demand of countries in the same year, the cloud would rank 6th in the world, with demand expected to increase 63% by 2020. (3)
7. Each year, the electronic industry – one of the world’s largest and fastest growing – generates up to 41 million tonnes of e-waste from goods such as computers and smart phones. (4)

(1) Two Sides, 2016. FAO Data briefing document forest growth.
(2) GeSI SMARTer2020: The Role of ICT in Driving a Sustainable Future (2015 report).
(3) Greenpeace, 2014.
(4) United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2015.