Sustainability in Journalism

1. PAPER and DIGITAL MEDIA Sustainability in Journalism Myriad factors go into both paper and digital journalism, making it difficult for accurate and comprehensive comparisons to be made. However, it is safe to say that while both have significant environmental effects, work is being done to minimize their impact. Environmental Impacts of Digital News Industry: Environmental Impacts of Paper News Industry: • Internet use emits 300 million tons of CO2 each year • One online paper (The Guardian) estimated through careful calculations that their operation emitted 10,000 tons of CO2 from 2011-2012. Thousands of online papers exist in North America alone. • ICT (Information and Communications Technology) emits 2% of global carbon emissions • About 90 million trees consumed yearly for newsprint • 25% of human greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation • paper industry makes up 9% of total carbon emissions from manufacturing Sustainability Efforts: Sustainability Efforts: • Ensuring that newspapers are made from recycled newsprint • Decreasing size and weight of newsprint used for each paper • Monitoring inks/solvents to decrease problematic emissions (using soy and water-based inks) • Increasing sustainability of manufacturing facilities • Search engines such as Google are funding switch to alternative energy such as wind power • Apple designing products that use fewer materials and emit less carbon • 75% of energy used by Apple’s facilities is now renewable