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2012 Four Corners Green Living
Power to the Portable People Tablets and e-readers continue to take over the planet, but at what environmental cost? by Lindsey Romain CTW Features
In today’s onslaught of updated gadgetry and hip new products, e-readers and tablets have proved a popular leap to the next stage of book reading. From January to August 2010, e-book sales were up 193 percent from the same period in 2009. Meanwhile, sales for traditional paper books fell by 4.1 percent in 2009. Those with an eye for the ecological should take note; if used to their fullest function, e-readers and tablets can be greener alternatives to their paper counterparts. But knowing how to get the best use
out of these products is the only way to guarantee a tech-friendly carbon footprint. E-Readers Not a lot is known about the precise energy consumption of e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle, since most companies choose to withhold any finite statistics. But different experts have offered opinions for what those numbers might be. In 2009, an article in The New York Times by Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris examined a number of ecological production factors of e-readers.They found that one e-reader requires the extraction of 33 pounds of minerals and 79 gallons of water, compared to a printed book’s two-thirds of a pound of minerals and 2 gallons of water. Those numbers may sound in drastic favor of the printed book, but it’s a skewed glimpse at the overall picture; Goleman and
10 • Four Corners Green Living • Sunday, June 17, 2012
Norris also found that a 500-mile shipment of a book by plane generates the same amount of pollution it costs to make the book in the first place. Factor in other methods of shipment – like a drive to the post office – and that number gets even higher. An e-book, on the other hand, is a computer click away, no waste required. On the same token, Green Press Initiative released a report with the Book Industry Study Group that concluded that about 8.85 pounds of carbon dioxide goes into the production of one book.That means that 22 books on an e-reader are equal to one paper book – provided that the books are purchased brand new. Raz Godelnik, co-founder of Eco-Libris – an online company dedicated to the promotion of sustainable reading – says that once an e-reader is purchased, it’s important to read as many books as possible, since“the footprint is in the production.” Once the device is in the hands of its owner, most of the damage is already done (especially given the power-saving capabilities that make battery power minimal). As for companies refusing to provide further information on the ecology of the products, he suspects that as the demand for knowledge increases, the companies will start sharing more solid data.“They care about
something when the customers care about it,”Godelnik says. Tablets One company known for meeting the demands of the customer is Apple, the manufacturer of the iPad, the most popular tablet on the market. Apple hasn’t shied away from sharing production data about their other products; Apple.com offers downloadable PDFs with everything from supplier responsibility to Global Reporting Initiative indexes to recycling options. According to Apple’s stats, an iPad is responsible for about 287 pounds of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, smaller than the estimated 370 pounds for a Kindle, according to a Cleantech report. Godelnik says that reading 15 books on an iPad offsets the ecological production costs, while other studies estimate that number to be closer to 32. Like the Kindle or other e-readers, he says that the best way to assure a lesser impact is to use it as often as possible. One of the biggest differences between most e-readers and tablets is in the powersaving capabilities.“E-readers like the traditional Kindle only draw power when you turn a page; if you leave it on the same page, it’s not using any power,”Pollack says.“That’s why it can remain charged longer than a tablet.”The more charges to a battery, the more energy consumed, and the less ecofriendly it becomes. Jennifer Schwab, co-founder of Sierra Club Green Home, a website offshoot of the grassroots sustainability organization, suggests one way of saving battery power on the iPad: shutting off the WiFi when it’s not in use.The connection is automatically made in a wireless zone, but she says that disabling it preserves the battery, meaning less recharges and energy consumption. When to Buy The best way to determine whether or not an e-reader or tablet is worth the ecological cost is to determine if one is even needed in the first place. “If you’re reading dozens of books every year and you expect to keep the device for a long period of time, then you’re releasing your environmental impact by purchasing
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