Book Industry Environmental Council to Launch Eco-Labeling Program
Extra: Do e-books factor into the eco-labeling program?
Pollak: At this point, we don't feel we have enough information to make a conclusive determination as to whether e-books are ''greener'' than paper books. While e-books reduce impacts associated with harvesting trees, they have their own impacts associated with extracting raw materials, energy used to manufacture the devices, energy used to power e-readers and the servers that host the books, and issues of electronic waste. User behavior, including the number of books and magazines that are read on each device, also plays into the equation. Since there are so many unknowns at this point, we didn't attempt to calculate the impacts/benefits of e-books. The scorecard for the BIEC eco-label doesn't have any points associated directly with e-books; however, if a publisher is able to reduce their overall return rate by selling more e-books, they'd be eligible to receive points associated with reducing returns.
- Companies:
- Green Press Initiative
- People:
- Todd Pollak