Can You Use New Technology To Be Kinder To The Environment?

17 August 2010
Posted in Alternative Energy

What do you think about when you consider the latest high technology gadgets? It will vary from person to person. Some may think that they’re trendy. Others might think that they’re expensive. Some almost certainly feel that they’re confusing and can be difficult to operate. It very much depends on your own individual viewpoint. However, it’s probably a fair bet to say that you almost certainly don’t associate the latest geeky electronic gizmo with doing your bit for the environment – even so, electronic devices can, used properly, be environmentally friendly.

For example, digital photo frames have greatly increased in popularity over the last two or three years. Due to competition in the market, prices have fallen dramatically and you can now pick up perfectly serviceable examples for around about the same price that you might pay for a conventional photo frame. Digital frames have a number of perceived advantages, one of which is their ability to display hundreds of different photographs using a single frame.

Much will depend upon just how many photographs you usually print out in a typical year, but if you are in the habit of taking a lot of snaps, then the use of a digital frame to display your photo collection could have a positive environmental impact. Whether you remove the need to have hard copies of photos developed at a processing lab or if you just print out less using your computer, you will wind up consuming fewer materials.

Another very topical, example is the hot gadget of the moment – the e-book reader. E-book readers have actually been available for quite some time, but they really caught the public's imagination in 2009 and now seem poised to increase sales even further in 2010. 

125 million trees are cut down every year to provide the paper required to supply the U.S. book, magazine and newspaper industry sector. Large amounts of water, energy and a whole host of chemicals are also required to satisfy the nation’s reading habit. What's more, books being a physical product require to be delivered from the publisher's warehouse to the book store – typically using road transportation. The fuel used by customers who make a car trip to and from the store is also a factor in determining the final carbon footprint of a standard book.

Electronic books of course, do not consume large amounts of paper, ink etc. in their production. Also, given that there is no physical product, electronic books may be downloaded from the internet instead of using road delivery.

Of course, as both e-book readers and digital photo frames are themselves physical products, they do require both materials and energy for their production. They also require delivery to the point of sale or direct to the final customer. Even so, according to studies have shown that, even when the materials consumed are offset against the savings in paper, energy, ink etc. that such devices can be better for the environment (though it will depend, to a certain extent, on how many books you read or how many photos you process each year).