Customer Experience
Do Digital Solutions Preserve Forestry?
Despite these facts, going digital more and printing less is still a good idea for the environment—and your business. Here’s why.
- Digital solutions preserve forestry by eliminating the need for paper, and we can all agree that’s a good thing—right?
- Turns out it’s not that simple.
- Digitizing internal and external communications within a company seems natural in today’s tech world. For most, it’s more convenient—who wants files of physical documentation in their desk when we can just touch a button on our screen and learn everything we need to know? Not to mention, environmental consciousness is something consumers increasingly value. Many automotive companies are moving toward electronic owner manuals, which could eliminate the need for a vast amount of paper.
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- However, not all consumers are interested in switching to digital. Paper is still preferred by many, and a recent study has shown that paperless claims do not convince consumers to switch to online services. In fact,
- don’t believe, feel misled by or question “go paperless, go green” claims.
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- For starters, electronic communication has its own environmental impacts. In fact, 91% of U.S. respondents agreed that, when responsibly produced and recycled, paper can be a sustainable way to communicate.
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- Corporate marketing generally lacks transparency about the environmental impacts of going digital. Electronic communications use non-renewable materials—the manufacturing of electronic devices and producing the energy to power them leaves a significant carbon footprint.
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- As a result of information such as this, over
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- in North America, and 360 globally, have agreed to change their messaging and remove misleading environmental claims promoting digital solutions over paper.
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- Furthermore, the use of resources from responsibly managed forests provides an important incentive for land owners to manage forest lands sustainably. Because of this, we have seen an increase in the area of U.S. forests since 2005. In fact, papermaking is not known to be a cause of forest loss in North America at all—the main causes are urbanization, agriculture and other developments.
- Despite these facts, going digital more and printing less is still a good idea for the environment—and your business. Here’s why.
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- It may seem that in this age of global digitalization, paper usage would have decreased—but the opposite is true. In the last 20 years, the use of paper products in the U.S. has grown by 126%. The average person in the U.S. uses more than
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- Additionally, though paper is much more recyclable than electronics, it is not necessarily being recycled. Though the U.S. takes fifth place among the world’s top recycling countries, 50% of paper products are still sent to landfills. If everyone in the U.S. recycled at least one-tenth of their paper waste, 25 million trees could be saved.
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- Whether it’s taking place here in the U.S. or not, at least 10% of deforestation worldwide is attributed to the paper industry, and deforestation is responsible for 12% of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s time to think globally when it comes to deforestation and climate change.
- What we know about the environment and technology is changing at a rapid pace. We know that digital solutions aren’t completely harmless to the environment, and neither is printing. Perhaps the best solution is education, transparency and a healthy balance of print and digital solutions. We must remain informed about the actions we can take to maintain our forests—including conservation of resources and recycling.
