Re: [Air-L] effect of Internet on paper consumption?
If talking about sustainable development vis-a-vis internet commerce and the use of paper, have You considered taking a wider perspective in account? For example, even if studies WOULD show that e-commerce does reduce the use of paper (as I see, there have been some works that cast some doubts on that fact), the overall impact of ecological cost of producing and constant renewing of ICT's and the infrastructure involved might still render the positive results (in terms of paper use) negative. I think it was in Dordoy, A. & Mellor, M. (2001). Ch 68 „Grassroots Environmental Movements: Mobilisation in an Information Age”. In „Manuel Castells. Volume III. From the Informational City to the Information Age” (2004), eds F. Webster & B. Dimitriou. London: Sage, pp 248-264, where the authors cited Harpold & Philip who said something along the lines "the environmental impact of producing ICTs is very hard to assess". They didnät get to the bottom of the problem though... Sincerely, Laur Kanger
-----Original Message----- From: Hang Ryeol Na [mailto:nhr24@hotmail.com] Sent: Sunday, 30 September 2007 9:35 AM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-L] effect of Internet on paper consumption?
Dear all,
I am preparing to write a paper about the effect of internet commerce on paper consumption in terms of sustainable development. As there has been a lot of debate on whether the internet decreased or increased paper consumption, for example, paperless office, online bill and payment, etc. I am interested in what factors contributed to the increase and what others to the decrease.
Do you have any information, or can you provide any resource of the data showing the effect of internet on paper consumption?
If there are any statistics of companies which saved the cost by, for example, making the customers move from the traditional paper bill to online bill, it would be great. It would be even greater if any analysis is available of what made or did not make it possible to save the cost in such a way. I need to understand why there are both success and failure in such cases. My focus is on how to decrease the paper consumption with internet, or, whether it is feasible or not.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Hang Ryeol Na
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I thank you all, Lisa McLaughlin, Glenn Pass, Laur Kanger, Ben Spigel, Scott MacLeod, for the really helpful comments and information. One question still remains though. Can Internet really not contribute any to reduction of paper consumption? I agree with you, Laur Kanger, on the overall impact of technology with a larger view. But there is still a favorable argument on the Internet's role of cost saving with paper reduction, for example, an article from New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00EEDE153FF93AA15753C1A9649... in which the author says 'A number of studies and surveys show that the average company saves about $1 a bill by moving from a paper-based system to an electronic system.' I guess I will try to clarify, based on some case studies, how internet affected the paper consumption in terms of sustainable development, and in what conditions it can reduce it better. Sincerely, Hang Ryeol Na
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 09:23:36 +0300> From: morgoth@ut.ee> To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-L] effect of Internet on paper consumption?> > If talking about sustainable development vis-a-vis internet commerce and> the use of paper, have You considered taking a wider perspective in> account? For example, even if studies WOULD show that e-commerce does> reduce the use of paper (as I see, there have been some works that cast> some doubts on that fact), the overall impact of ecological cost of> producing and constant renewing of ICT's and the infrastructure involved> might still render the positive results (in terms of paper use) negative.> > I think it was in Dordoy, A. & Mellor, M. (2001). Ch 68 „Grassroots> Environmental Movements: Mobilisation in an Information Age”. In> „Manuel Castells. Volume III. From the Informational City to the> Information Age” (2004), eds F. Webster & B. Dimitriou. London:> Sage, pp 248-264, where the authors cited Harpold & Philip who said> something along the lines "the environmental impact of producing ICTs is> very hard to assess". They didnät get to the bottom of the problem> though...> > Sincerely,> Laur Kanger
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A little late, but Malcolm Gladwell's _New Yorker_ review essay centered around (but not confined to) Sellen and Harper's _Myth of the Paperless Office_ is also excellent, and gets at issues of paper consumption: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/03/25/020325crbo_books The Sellen and Harper book itself is also excellent, as someone else noted. The Gladwell essay points to some of the key reasons why decreasing paper consumption even with computers and the internet, which hypothetically could result in less paper use, is difficult because of the affordances of paper. Holly -- Holly Kruse Faculty of Communication The University of Tulsa 600 S. College Ave. Tulsa, OK 74104 918-631-3845 holly-kruse@utulsa.edu or holly.kruse@gmail.com http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse
Read Bill Gate's Business at the Speed of Thought. -----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Holly Kruse Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 12:45 PM To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-L] effect of Internet on paper consumption? A little late, but Malcolm Gladwell's _New Yorker_ review essay centered around (but not confined to) Sellen and Harper's _Myth of the Paperless Office_ is also excellent, and gets at issues of paper consumption: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/03/25/020325crbo_books The Sellen and Harper book itself is also excellent, as someone else noted. The Gladwell essay points to some of the key reasons why decreasing paper consumption even with computers and the internet, which hypothetically could result in less paper use, is difficult because of the affordances of paper. Holly -- Holly Kruse Faculty of Communication The University of Tulsa 600 S. College Ave. Tulsa, OK 74104 918-631-3845 holly-kruse@utulsa.edu or holly.kruse@gmail.com http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~holly-kruse _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (4)
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Constantine, Norman -
Hang Ryeol Na -
Holly Kruse -
Laur Kanger