How much impact do printing businesses, and the process of printing itself, impact the planet? How much collective responsibility do we bear? Heidi Tolliver-Walker takes a look at how we’re doing.
At home, we recycle and turn out the lights when we leave the room. We buy hybrid vehicles and some of us even bike to work. We do our part to conserve resources and minimize our impact on the planet. But what about at work? How much impact do printing businesses, and the process of printing itself, impact the planet? How much collective responsibility do we bear?
What’s Our Impact?
Before answering this question, it’s important to step back and look at the larger context. That starts with the country we live in. The United States has an out-sized impact on the environment. With only 4.5% of the world’s population, we generate 15.6% of the world’s carbon footprint.
Source: Global Footprint Network
Why this outsized impact? We are a highly industrialized economy, with a significant focus on manufacturing, energy production, and transportation sectors. Our reliance on fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, to meet the energy demands of industries and transportation leads to substantial greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, our level of industrialization has its upsides and its downsides, too.
Because the majority of our carbon footprint comes from the impact of fossil fuels, the US’s outsized impact presents an outsized opportunity to do better. Energy sources are one of the factors over which we have significant control. By switching from fossil fuels to renewable sources, we can make up lost carbon footprint “ground” very quickly.
Percentage of a Country’s Energy that Comes from Renewable Sources
Source: WiseVoter.com
How does the United States compare to other countries when it comes to renewable energy? On average, 17% of countries’ energy comes from renewable sources. In the United States, it is only 10.7%. On the list of countries with the highest percentage of renewable energy use, the United States isn’t even in in the top 10.
This is one area where the printing industry can lead