How much greenhouse gas results from the daily newspaper? Is it possible to reduce greenhouse gases by reading the daily news on a computer screen or mobile device instead of on paper? A new report, The Carbon Footprint of News Publishing, provides the answers to these questions and others and is a good news story for the newspaper industry.
The report from the Shaping the Future of News Publishing (SFN) project of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) provides an overview of a number of European studies, and determines that there is no reason to reject the printed newspaper in favour of an electronic version. In fact, depending on the reading habits and length of reading time, the printed newspaper in many cases beats online and mobile platforms, in terms of CO2 production.
The report, released during the World Publishing Expo in Frankfurt, Germany, also shows that the amount of energy required to produce newsprint is less than for all other types of paper used in publishing, and that the base material for a large share of newsprint is recycled waste paper.
The report (in English) is available as a pdf download, free to members of WAN-IFRA, and for sale to non-members. Full details can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/carbon_footprint
