The words of Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore are a good point of departure: “We should be growing more trees and using more wood. If [those] land owners had no market for wood, they would clear the forest away and grow something else they could make money from instead. When you go into a lumber (wood) yard, you are given the impression that by buying wood you are causing the forest to be lost, when in fact what you are doing is sending a signal into the market to plant more trees.”

Given that in South Africa, paper is made from farmed trees, we can easily replace the word ‘wood’ above with paper.

Paper goes beyond common A4 printer paper from which the flawed antidote of “paperless” has emerged.

Paper includes packaging – from the boxes in which computer equipment is protected during shipment to the box that teabags come in; from your morning cereal, to the label on the coffee jar, to the bag of sugar and to the milk carton; from the tissue box to the bag and box that contained your takeaway lunch. It also includes books, magazines and newspapers. And then the important things like toilet paper, facial tissues, paper towel, feminine hygiene and diapers.

I won’t even go into the number of fibre-based, cellulosic innovations that are set to rival fossil-based materials.

Paper saves forests

South African paper products are produced from a renewable resource, in the form of:

• Wood pulp from trees farmed sustainably managed timber plantations (not from the wood of indigenous trees)
• Recycled paper fibre
• Bagasse (byproduct from sugar cane processing)

Just like most industries, paper manufacturing has an impact on the environment, but this is mitigated through the carbon sequestration by plantations, and the release of oxygen; the use of biomass-based renewable energy (derived from by-products of the papermaking process), emission reduction and water recycling initiatives, biodiversity conservation at plantation level as well as the promotion of paper recovery and recycling.

Carbon capture

In papermaking, the timber is chipped, pulped and paper is made and converted into countless products that we connect with all day, every day – in the kitchen and bathroom, at the office, at the supermarket and while travelling.

Through the papermaking process, carbon (from the CO2 absorbed by the trees) remains locked up and out of the atmosphere. And by recycling paper, we keep this carbon locked up. Destined for landfill – a compact, anaerobic environment – paper (mixed with other waste) will degrade and release gases such as methane which is 25 times more potent than CO2.

While there is no doubt that digital technologies offer security, integration, immediacy and convenience, using the mantra of “saving forests” to promote digital means needs to stop. Because it is simply untrue.

The post Using paper saves trees – a South African perspective first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Reading to children from an early age is an acknowledged factor in early childhood development (ECD) as it not only strengthens the bond between adult and child, but helps little ones develop cognitive and conversational skills.

Our digital world has pros and cons, so it’s not surprising that a debate on the merits and pitfalls of e-books against the printed page wages on.

Educationalists and a committed body of parents have unequivocally expressed their support for the time honoured reader, especially as it evokes fond memories of their own early reading experiences.

Page turners

Educationalist Dr Lauren Stretch, founder of NGO Early Inspiration, is an ECD specialist and an enthusiastic proponent of the paper book. She believes that early contact with books teaches children to respect and care for them, while physical contact with a volume – turning the pages – creates a greater feeling of engagement with the medium as opposed to merely holding a tablet.

She also regards time spent huddled over a book with a parent, grandparent or baby sitter as absolutely invaluable.

“This is an incredibly nurturing experience. Parents can engage with their child or children in a calm and soothing environment. Often when children use a device they do so alone, and don’t enjoy the interaction that can be gained during their first steps towards reading proficiency.”

This process helps the child gain the ability to concentrate and contributes heavily towards auditory, sequencing and memory skills at an early age. Just as important, it inspires a love of reading.

Conversations with mothers of young children show that they are in unanimous agreement with her comments:

Quiet time and story engagement

“I am the mother of a book-obsessed little girl. Reading a book together allows us some precious quiet time. Holding a book and turning the pages, naming the hidden characters in a well-illustrated story helps us to interact with one another as does the narration of the story. Books have also taught her the value of things, and that they need to be treated gently so that a favourite story can be revisited and enjoyed,” says parenting magazine editor Mandy Lee Miller.

Cape Town primary school librarian Debbie Feldman is adamant that books offer a physicality that attracts children more than the sterility of an e-reading device.

“Children like books as a medium because they love the smell of the paper and being able to turn the pages. This is particularly evident with picture books as they like to guess what the next illustration holds in store, making turning the next page an adventure. Children can also use the illustrations as a guide to the storyline which in turn supports their progress in comprehending the written text,” says Feldman.

“Reading with your child creates a bond and an enjoyable, relaxing experience in which parents and children can share interests and explore the world. This leads to the association of reading as an activity that brings joy. What’s more, experts suggest that reading to children for 20 minutes a day improves their chances of success in school,” says Lizelle Langford, READ Educational Trust’s public relations and fundraising manager.

Another equally supportive view comes from preschool teacher and mother of a three-year-old-boy, Heather Step.

“Reading with your child not only builds a love of books but a relationship with them that can extend to other rewarding activities. We have a routine every night. He acts out scenes from the book we are reading after his bath. And this has led to regular and much-enjoyed trips to the library where he can enjoy the experience of seeking out the books he is going to enjoy at home.”

Regular reading with your children not only provides them with an invaluable source of stimulation but equips them to excel in an educational environment. Educational researchers have established that one of the key indicators to predict a young person’s ability to gain university entrance is a history of reading with their parents from infancy.

Tablets take away true engagement

Touch-screens are great at a lot of things, but engaging children in a narrative is not one of them. Why? Because interactivity stops young ones from falling in love with stories and reading for pleasure, the cornerstones of imagination and understanding.

A device makes it very easy for a child to dismiss reading as ‘boring’ in comparison with the instant gratification of games and apps. There are simply too many distractions. Children are most likely to engage with stories in the right environment and context, and that means away from a screen.

According to a UK survey of almost 35,000 eight to 16 year olds, screens don’t seem to improve children’s experience of reading.

• A child who reads only on-screen is three times less likely to enjoy reading
• 15.5% of children who read every day, but only on screen, are above average readers.
• 26% of those who read daily in print, or both in print and on-screen, read at an above average level.

Interactive stories are designed for young children who may still need guided reading, but that interactivity often creates more of a game experience than a reading one. Instead of being the focus, the story becomes merely a background.

“If the child’s doing that, they are not going to be listening or reading”

International children’s author Julia Donaldson explains why she refused an e-book version of her most famous title, The Gruffalo, in a 2011 article in the Guardian. “The publishers showed me an e-book of Alice in Wonderland,” Donaldson said. “They said, ‘Look, you can press buttons and do this and that’, and they showed me the page where Alice’s neck gets longer,” said Donaldson. “There’s a button the child can press to make the neck stretch, and I thought, well, if the child’s doing that, they are not going to be listening or reading.”

Most children’s apps are crammed with interactivity with no objective apart from getting kids to tap on the screen. In storybook apps, the stream of sound and movement signifying nothing does not allow the cognitive and emotional space required to deeply engage with a story in the way that an old-fashioned book does. When we’re engaged in a story, we’re actually feeling the story, imagining how the characters feel and how we would feel in the same situation. That experience is hindered when children are busy trying to figure out what happens next when they tap on the screen.

During a bedtime story, the only stimuli are the adult’s voice and the book’s pictures. The best stories require interpretation and stimulate discussion between parent and child.

The moral of the story…

Parents should encourage a balanced mix of online and offline reading, both for older children reading by themselves and for toddlers who need guided reading to provide them with the necessary mental space to engage with a story in a deeper way.

PAMSA is a member of the South African Book Development Council which seeks to increase access to books and boost local books especially indigenous language and diverse content books.  

National Book Week will be take place from 5-11 September.

Source:

Asi Sharabi. 2013. Tablets make it impossible for kids to get lost in a story. [ONLINE] Available at: http://qz.com/159059/tablets-make-it-impossible-for-kids-to-get-lost-in-a-story/. [Accessed 12 April 2016].

The post Printed Books Are Best – The Paper Story (PAMSA) first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Organisations like the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA) are working towards a ‘recycling-minded’ society by teaching ordinary people how they can make an extraordinary difference – with everyday items.

“Separating paper and cardboard products from home, school and office waste and keeping it aside for conversion into other products has many benefits, both for the environment and the people who make a living by collecting recyclables and selling them on to buy-back centres and paper manufacturers,” says RecyclePaperZA operations director Ursula Henneberry.

RENEWABLE AND RECYCLABLE

The paper products we come into daily contact with – ranging from office paper and newspapers, medicine boxes and magazines, juice and milk cartons to cardboard cores from toilet rolls – can all be recycled.

They are also completely renewable because, at some point, their fibre would have come from sustainably and responsibly farmed trees that are planted, grown, harvested and replanted in cycles.

Recycling also keeps the carbon originally stored in the wood fibre of trees locked in paper products and out of the atmosphere for longer.

Unfortunately large quantities of paper still end up in landfills, which are rapidly running out of space, and add to greenhouse gas emissions when paper decomposes with other waste.

“During 2014, 64% of recoverable paper was recycled, 2% more than in 2013 and 5% more than in 2012,” says Henneberry. “For every tonne of paper recycled, up to three cubic metres of landfill space is saved – land that could be better used for housing, agriculture and infrastructure. During 2014, South Africans recycled 1.1 million tonnes, enough to fill 1,276 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”

But we need to do more. It is estimated that only 5% of households recycle paper.

RecyclePaperZA advises that householders keep recyclables aside for an informal collector who walks your neighbourhood every week. “This increases the quality of the recyclables, allowing the collector to earn a little more.”

TRASH IS TREASURE

“In a country with high unemployment rates and accompanying poverty, paper recycling is becoming a source of revenue for a growing number of people. An estimated 35,000 people put food on their tables by walking the streets to collect ‘waste’ in return for cash or work for larger companies to recover, sort and weigh recyclables for conversion into usable and commercially viable products.

The pulp and paper manufacturing industry is a key sector in the South African economy. Importantly, it employs a workforce of more than 150,000 people across the value chain – from forestry, to pulp and paper manufacturing to informal collectors. These people in turn collectively feed, clothe and school around 900,000 dependants.

“Companies that produce paper products run major mills specifically designed to turn today’s phonebooks, magazines, notepads, company minutes, milk cartons and cereal boxes into tomorrow’s egg containers, corrugated boxes and board, newspapers and tissue products,” states Henneberry.

“Some 65% of recovered paper is used as fibre, without which these mills would stand idle, unable to manufacture the pulp used to produce materials for products manufactured in South Africa and exported around the world.”

You can get involved by separating all kinds of refuse, starting with paper and moving on to plastics, glass and cans.

Paper products you can recycle:

• all office paper
• coloured paper
• newspaper, magazines (even glossy ones)
• catalogues, phonebooks
• direct marketing leaflets
• cardboard packaging of all kinds, shapes and sizes – boxes used for moving; electronics, shoes, gifts and cereal
• paper towel and toilet paper cores
• food packaging (unwaxed only please)
• shredded paper (in plastic bag to minimize blow-away)
• milk, juice and liquid cartons (should be empty)
• books: all soft cover, hard or plastic covers should be ripped off
• pizza boxes (food and wax paper removed)
• brown paper bags

Remember, paper should be separated from wet waste so it does not get contaminated.

Paper products you shouldn’t recycle

• Tissue paper and paper towel
• Wax paper
• Used cement and dog food bags
• Disposable nappies
• Plastic lined papers
• Foil lined papers

RECYCLING PROGRAMMES

• Visit mywaste.co.za for programmes in your area.
  • Enrol in a free kerbside collection programme.
  • Find a drop-off centre near your home or office, usually at local shopping centres.
• Check with local community centres, places of worship or schools if they have a paper recycling programme from which they benefit financially.
• Contract the services of a small recycling business.

Clean-up SA and Recycle Week takes place between September 14 and 18, and National Recycling Day is celebrated on Friday, September 18. International Coastal Clean-up Day takes place on Saturday, 19 September.

The post Discover the treasure in your trash first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

“According a 2010 study[i] by the University of Stellenbosch, the cost of functional illiteracy[ii] to South Africa’s economy in unrealised GDP is estimated at R550 billion annually,” says Jane Molony, executive director of the Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) and chairperson of the South African Book Development Council (SADBC).

A study conducted by the SADBC in 2007, which focused on the reading habits of adult South Africans, showed that only 14% of the country’s people are avid book readers and a mere 5% of parents read to their children. The survey also indicated that 51% of households in South Africa did not have a single book in their home.

“Without a culture of reading, you don’t learn. Without learning, you don’t have knowledge. Without knowledge, you cannot participate in the economy,” says Molony, adding that the access to books is the first key to unlocking literacy development.

Research has shown that paper-based materials promote reading comprehension, information retention and learning, and that print-based texts are superior to digital texts in facilitating learning strategies.

The ICFPA represents more than 30 national forest and paper associations around the world, including PAMSA. Together, ICFPA members account for more than 90% of the world’s paper and more than half of global wood production.

For more information about the sustainability of the forest and paper industry, visit icfpa.org.

The post Get South Africa Reading to Get South Africa Growing first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Martyn Eustace, Country Manager for Print Power UK, says, “in a world where online and social media channels are very much the focus of media buyer attention, print is staging a comeback. Its special sensory qualities, particularly touch, just can’t be emulated on-line and, linked with a well targeted and imaginative mail campaign, will deliver impressive results and, importantly, high ROI.”

The TouchedByDM mailing has been developed by Ogilvy’s Red Works office in Brussels and is printed with four different printing technologies (offset, screen-print, digital and UV printing). The campaign consists not only of a mailing, but also features cases and examples of sensory print on the Print Power website, a video on the production of the mailing, a presentation with inspiring cases and a reminder mailing using Augmented Reality.

Martyn Eustace, UK Country Manager for Print Power, says: “In a multi-channel world that offers marketers an array of choice on how best to interact with their customers, many brands are looking at how to appeal to the five senses. While channels like television, radio and Internet have a different combination of sensory triggers and are often restricted in the number of senses they can reach, it is print media that uniquely offers a combination of triggering vision, touch and smell. Certain brands have also experimented with creating taste and hearing sensory experiences in print.”

Gerd Trimmal, Marketing Director Petcare at Mars adds: “Print can deliver to senses which can’t be reached by digital – taste, smell, touch”.

So far the mailing has been sent out in Spain, France and Italy with remarkable results.

France has reported a 9% return rate on the mailing, while Italy scored 14.7% and Spain an astonishing 23.5% return rate. The normal return rate for this kind of mailing is between 0.5% and 1.0%. Over the coming months the mailing will be sent out to a further nine countries across Europe.

The Print Power mailing consists of four elements: the envelope, which is in fact a folded-up poster, holds a personalised letter, a chalked blackboard card, a reply card, and a reply envelope. The blackboard card contains a hidden message which becomes visible once the chalk is wiped away. Leaving a print of their chalk-covered hand on the reply card allows the recipient of the mailing to obtain a personalised Moleskine notebook as the handprint is then scanned and printed on the cover of the notebook. The sense of touch is exploited to its extreme as even the hand print is printed in relief.

Source: Print Power

About Print Power

Print Power is an initiative by companies from the Graphic Communication Value Chain including forestry, pulp, paper, inks and chemicals, pre-press, press, finishing, publishing, envelopes and printing. Our common goal is to maximise the share of Print Media in a Multi-Media world by promoting is effectiveness in building Brands and delivering high returns for advertisers and print users.

Notes to editors

If you have any queries please contact:

Print Power UK: t: +44 1327 262920

e: info@printpoweruk.co.uk

The post Print Power UK announces ambitious direct mail campaign to promote the Power of Print in direct marketing first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

“23% of tablet users prefer digital magazines on tablets over print,” says a blog post from Mequoda about its new study “How American Adults Consume Magazines on Tablets.” The blog post and trade-media coverage interpret the data as meaning that tablet magazines are about to enter a boom period.

But here’s the real news: Three-fourths of U.S. tablet users do not prefer digital magazines to print magazines. Read that sentence again: It doesn’t say three-fourths of U.S. Luddites or of adults or of magazine readers; it says three-fourths of tablet users.

Isn’t that a bit like people with Blu-Ray players preferring to watch VHS tapes?

In the same study, 51% of tablet users prefer streaming video to broadcast and 39% prefer e-books to printed books.

Yes, tablet use is growing. Mequoda found that a majority of U.S. internet users have access to a tablet. And yes people are learning to do more and more with them. Tablets are displacing laptops for many people.

But tablet owners apparently haven’t fallen in love with reading magazines on their tablets.That may be why Newsweek has reportedly gone from 1.5 million subscribers to 470,000 less than six months after dropping print to go digital-only.

Despite all the hype about iPads and Kindles, U.S. magazine publishers are making far more money on the web and generally wondering when their tablet investments will pay off.

In fact, though no one seems to talk about it, the real game-changing technology for subscription magazines has been browser-based editions — that is, digital replicas that can be read on any computer. Many a B2B publication has shifted 50% or more of its subscription base to these simple page-flip editions, but few print-and-digital publications get even 10% of their circulation from tablet editions.

Source

The post A Troubling Sign for Tablet Magazines? first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

The post Print media shines in Sandy’s wake first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

While we cannot dispute the convenience and immediacy of having annual reports on our company websites and our latest bank statement emailed to us, we have to ensure that electronic information is not ‘green-washed’. In the case of your bank statement being sent straight to your inbox, it is simply about reducing cost (to the service provider) and improving convenience to you as the user. It is certainly not about ‘going green’.

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change published by Sir Nicholas Stern, head of the Government Economic Service in the United Kingdom, in 2006 explains it simply. His 700-page document tackled the effects of climate change and global warming on the world economy and he used the same document to demonstrate how paper and print have a better environmental footprint than electronic communications.

• Printing the Stern Review emits 85g of CO2 (one copy can be read over and over again without further emissions).
• Reading the Stern Review on a computer for one hour emits 226g of CO2 every time.
• Burning the Stern Review to CD is estimated to emit 300g of CO2 for every copy
• Burning the Stern Review to DVD is estimated to emit 350g of CO2 for every copy.

Consider the environment before you send that email

Stern notes that sending 50kb via e-mail causes the same emission as posting a 10g item, with all its fossil fuel consumption in mail delivery etc.  The big difference is that reading an item on a computer emits greenhouse gases at the rate of 3.8g of CO2 per minute. Reading a piece of paper results in no additional emissions.

Putting things in perspective

In an article Sappi’s eQ Journal (Issue 0004), Hans Wegner, Chief Sustainability Officer, National Geographic Society says, “I get frustrated with people who say ‘magazines are the problem,’ when an annual subscription to National Geographic is equal to using a gallon of gas [equivalent to 3.5 litres of petrol] in your car.”

Wegner does take some comfort in knowing that the carbon footprint of the [National Geographic] magazine is something he can quantify, unlike the impact of the online version. Wegner isn’t so sure that electronic is the better medium for the environment, despite the majority of the general public believing as such.

“We don’t know the environmental impact of saving a document on a server for ten years or more,” Wegner says. “And we have no idea of the impact of extracting finite resources to make electronic devices that cannot easily be recycled safely and practically.”

Trees are an important part of the paper story

Compare the manufacture of electronic devices to support communication, which rely on energy from non-renewable fossil fuels and components made from non-renewable precious metals, with the natural and scientific wonder of the tree: It is 100% renewable and it sequesters carbon during its growth cycle through photosynthesis.

Furthermore sustainably managed plantations mitigate climate change, provide a reliable and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber supply into the value chain and ensure that our land, water resources, fauna and flora remain protected. In fact, South Africa has the highest level of international certification of its plantations in the world. Over 80% of South African plantations are certified by the FSC.

The use of renewable biomass-based energy has also enabled the South African paper manufacturing industry to avoid the use of 1,3 million tons of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas annually and therefore the associated carbon emissions.

Once the paper reaches the consumer, it is vital that it is recycled thereby extending the period of carbon lock-up in paper and keeping carbon out of the atmosphere for longer.

Think before you do not print

So when you get that email that asks you not to print it so you can save a tree, point them to the www.paperstory.co.za website where they can download and print the latest PAMSA fact sheet, and a new strap for the bottom of their emails.

PAMSA does not advocate wasteful printing – we advocate responsible printing and paper use, re-use and recycle.

Follow us on Twitter @PaperRocks_SA.

The post Pulling the plug on the digital vs paper debate first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2012 (RISI)

A recent marketing campaign by Toshiba was the cause this time. The company, a global manufacturer of consumer and commercial printers, among many other products, sought to establish a “No Print Day” and hoped to show the environmental benefits of reducing paper use in the office. Within hours, due in large part to social media, battle lines were drawn between paper supporters and opponents, largely centering on whether a business that depends on the paper industry should be calling for paper’s demise.

The idea of a paperless office, and possibly a paperless society, has held sway over business’ imagination like few other topics. Since 1975, when Businessweek magazine article declared the office of the future would thrive without paper, primarily through automation and technological advancements, the theory of living without paper has become like the search for the Higgs Bosen particle.

Is a paperless office possible?

Demand for pulp and paper is approaching an all-time high. Foex, the Finnish company that publishes pulp, paper and paperboard price indexes, predicts the global paper market could reach a new record of 400 million tons in 2012. Another report earlier this year by Global Industry Analysts estimates global pulp and paper products consumption would grow to reach 446 million tons by 2015.

But these simple numbers betray a more complex trend. Global usage is expected to be largest in high-growth, high-potential markets, mainly in developing countries. In contrast, paper usage in the US and Europe has been falling steadily for the past five years and is expected to continue. The estimated number of office pages printed, copies and faxed annually in the US peaked in 2007 at more than 1 trillion pages, according to InfoTrends, and looks to fall further for the next five years.

After nearly six centuries, since the invention of the Guttenberg press, paper usage in many developed countries finally appears to be diminishing. This does not mean paper is due for extinction any time soon. Instead, there are a myriad of factors that look to keep paper around for decades and perhaps centuries to come.

Stubborn challenges remain

One of the biggest obstacles for eliminating paper in most homes and offices is legal documents, a problem first mentioned in the Businessweek article. “It always takes longer than we expect to change the way people customarily do their business,” said Evelyn Berezin, president of Redacton Corp., which once held the second-largest installed-base of text-editing typewriters, behind IBM. Both companies are still in business today.

There are still wide misunderstandings on the legal differences between a digital signature, a handwritten signature, and a digital image of that same signature.

The US Internal Revenue Service provides a telling example of how long it has taken habits to change. In 2012, electronic fillings of individual tax returns increased 6.2% to 113 million out of a total of 137 million. Pre-printing of forms and publications has decreased proportionally, instead relying on printable PDF versions from websites for individuals and businesses. It would seem the public is finally ready to actively abandon paper for electronic documents.

But businesses often must take a different approach, simply because of regulations and legal requirements. The legal force of physical paper frequently holds more symbolic power than digital documents in courts and legal proceedings, despite electronic records management and electronic documents laws in many countries, including the US, Canada, and most of Europe. Insurance documents, wills, bank statements, accounting records all must be held for various lengths of time and many legal advisors still recommend keeping permanent paper records of the most important documents, such as stock certificates, articles of incorporation and tax records.

Digital signatures form another problem. While many government authorities have electronic document policies on the books, the laws and standards surrounding digital signatures in place of physical or handwritten signatures are not uniform. Public understanding, as well as time and costs, are still on the side of pen to paper. There are still wide misunderstanding on the legal differences between a digital signature, a handwritten signature, and a digital image of that same signature.

Our digital culture

The publishing industry is acutely aware of paper’s decline, although more as a medium of transmission than a loss of information. Jeff Gomez, author of Print is Dead – Books in our Digital Age, says that paper will never disappear. Instead, society is slowly making its way toward an age less centered on paper transactions.

“The same way we still have candles even though there’s electric light, paper will always exist in a multitude of forms and formats,” says Gomez. “Whether this means the way information is shared, money is exchanged, or even the way we pay bills or communicate with each other.”

There is a middle ground to be found between paper and print, explains Gomez. If anything, our culture is headed for an era where paper will be celebrated for its inherent worth and beauty. Many paper producers and commercial printers are already taking this approach, emphasizing how paper can add value in conjunction with, or in contrast to, the digital.

“Books that continue to be printed will celebrate their ‘print-ness’,” says Gomez, “by having gorgeous covers and beautifully designed interiors with textured pages that feel good to the touch.” There will also be digital-only novels, adds Gomez, that celebrate their ‘digital-ness’ by taking advantage of new and emerging digital technology.

To understand the future of paper, says Gomez, there is a need to define the difference between print and paper.

“The idea of print means lots of things. Yes, it’s true that newspapers are in trouble and that the industry, in the past decade, has contracted at an alarming rate. But the fact that huge swaths of the world’s populations find their information online or through mobile devices means that print no longer has an inherent cultural function. But paper still has plenty of other uses, both aesthetically and functionally; it will never go the way of the dodo.”

he book-on-demand printing business, such as the Espresso Book Machine in partnership with Xerox, has yet to provide a suitable alternative to either print or digital.

Corporate strategies

The world is full of irony. When Toshiba recently announced its marketing campaign for a “No Print Day,” another older, larger question raised its head again. Should companies with an investment in the pulp and paper business advocate for a paper-less society?

In that 1975 Businessweek article, George E. Pake, at the time the head of Xerox Corp.’s Palo Alto Research Center, said that the office copier giant was developing a new strategy for how business worked. “There is absolutely no question there will be a revolution in the office over the next 20 years. What we are doing will change the office like the jet plane revolutionized travel and the way TV has altered family life.”

In this moment, Xerox declared it was not a paper-based company, but an information technology company. Whether paper is used or not would become irrelevant to how Xerox saw the future of the office. Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2002 article “The Social Life of Paper” agreed by saying “Computer technology was supposed to replace paper.” Society’s continuing need for paper has less to do with technology and more to do with intangibles and he points out that paper use has not disappeared as quickly as many had hoped or planned.

“This is generally taken as evidence of how hard it is to eradicate old, wasteful habits and of how stubbornly resistant we are to the efficiencies offered by computerizations,” writes Gladwell. “A number of cognitive psychologists and ergonomics experts, however, don’t agree. Paper, they argue, has persisted for very good reasons: when it comes to performing certain kinds of cognitive tasks, paper has many advantages over computers.”

In the last decade, paper use in Europe and North America has indeed fallen and businesses now regularly push for paperless solutions to many tasks. Whether this is smart business is another debate. But it is interesting to note that the industry has been in a similar situation before.

Wood use for fuel in the United States peaked in 1906. After that, firewood use plunged as coal, and later natural gas, would replace it. Overall, US wood consumption would not surpass its former high until the 1980s. In that same time, the US population grew by approximately 150 million people. The cultural change in wood consumption over those seven decades can be attributed to corporate vision and technology advances as well as public perceptions.

For the time being, the evidence points to society using less paper. But there appears to be little proof of going paperless anytime soon.

The post The debate about the paperless office has flared again first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

This award-winning article from Don Carli looks at digital media and compares its environmental impact against print.

His article states:

“Public opinion polls show that concern about the environment rises and falls based on the state of the economy and other factors, but concern about the negative impacts associated with using paper and printing continues to rise. Nothing captures the essence of these feelings more vividly than the signature line appearing at the foot of more and more emails: “Please consider the environment before printing this email.’”

The article says that “if you care about the environment and the health of forests you should become more informed about the energy sources used by both digital and print media.”

He concludes: “Just because we cannot see something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. While paper mills emit visible plumes of steam and waste paper can pile up visibly in our homes and businesses, the invisible embodied energy or “grey energy” used to manufacture digital technologies and the toxic e-waste associated with electronics are largely out of sight and out of mind, but their impacts can be profound.”

Read the full article here: Is Digital Media Worse for the Environment Than Print?

Source: http://info.outputlinks.com/insights/bid/53229/One-Writer-Asks-Is-Digital-Media-Worse-for-the-Environment-Than-Print

The post Is Digital Media Worse for the Environment Than Print? first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).