To Print or not to Print… that is the question

We have all seen the little note at the bottom of most e-mails. “Consider the environment before printing” or something along that line. Now here is the question… What do you intend doing with that e-mail. Just a quick read and delete? By all means, go ahead.

But are you going to archive or save it for later reading or reference? You may want to re-think your position then.

Granted that printing an e-mail is mostly a waste of paper, it should be noted that if the paper is from a sustainable source, there may actually be merit in doing that.

Consider, if you will, the storage of said e-mail on a server of some sort. The server requires power. Power (especially in South Africa) is far from a clean resource. Not to mention the building required to house the server, the HVAC required to cool the server and a myriad other silicone based components required to actually save the data. Putting all of this together, saving the e-mail might actually be worse for the environment than printing it.

That said, most companies these days have a backup of all mail somewhere in cyberspace. Printing the e-mail may then actually be a terrible thing. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Solutions?

I am sure somebody is just waiting to revolutionise the soft- vs hard-copy arena. I cannot wait.