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Can Print Marketing be “Green?”

By Gail Nickel-Kailing on August 22nd, 2008

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro, a regular contributor to WhatTheyThink and long time researcher for TrendWatch/Industry Measure, has a post on a blog called The Inspired Economist. She starts off her first post jumping right into the tug-of-war between printed materials and their digital alternatives with:

“In marketing, electronic alternatives are often framed as the green alternative to print because they don’t require paper, ink, packaging, and physical transportation. However, there is a lot more to one’s environmental footprint than this. Take, for example, one’s carbon footprint. On this issue, electronic alternatives with their massive, 24-hour energy drain start to look less appealing.”

Way to go, Heidi! Lookiing forward to more of your insights! Read her entire post here>>

  1. 2 Responses to “Can Print Marketing be “Green?””

  2. By Bob Raus on Aug 25, 2008 | Reply

    This is an excellent point, and one I hear more and more recently. Two observations:
    1) Has anyone attempted to quantify the carbon footprint of the Internet infrastructure (running 24 x 7)?

    2) If the Internet infrastructure is there already (i.e. money already spent, carbon being created and fuels already being consumed - should we only compare the incremental costs of sending jobs/campaigns?

    I support the arguement and want to be able to defend it fully and logically.

  3. By David on Aug 25, 2008 | Reply

    Good points Bob and nice post/article. I am also curious if there have been any studies on the effects of dramatically more color printing being down at home instead of at a professional print-shop?

    For instance, we are now printing airline tickets, movie tickets, driving directions, photos, invites and even short-run marketing material from homes and businesses which used to be done through the print-shop… What +/- effect does that have on the environment?

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