ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The environmental case for digital publishing.
THE COST OF PAPER
417M
metric tons
of paper consumed globally each year
33%
of all trees
of all trees harvested go to paper production
7.5L
of water
to produce a single sheet of paper
26M
tons of books
end in landfills or are pulped annually
LIFECYCLE COST PER BOOK
Trees consumed
Water used
CO₂ emitted
Waste generated
THE COMPOUNDING ADVANTAGE
Print cost grows with every copy. Digital cost stays flat after the first.
THE RECYCLING MYTH
impact.recyclingMythDesc
THE DIGITAL ALTERNATIVE
A digital book is distributed once and read infinitely. No shipping fleets, no warehouse waste, no remaindered copies pulped at the end of a sales cycle. The environmental cost of the 10th reader is identical to the 10 millionth.