Folding on Paper

Score one for old media, I guess. Last month, electronics manufacturer Toshiba America Business Solutions announced its intention to establish a "National No Print Day" on Oct. 23, 2012, to promote reading documents electronically rather than wasting resources by printing them. This wasn't a purely altruistic move by Toshiba, of course, seeing as the company just happens to sell the devices that enable electronic document consumption. But its heart was in the right place, right next to its wallet.

Cue the paper and printing companies, which immediately petitioned Toshiba to drop the idea. The Printing Industries of America, a Pittsburgh-based trade association, emphasized the umbrage taken at the suggestion that their trade might somehow be detrimental to the environment. Toshiba almost immediately capitulated and even issued an apology.

More and more we are seeing these kinds of commercial conservation stand-offs, where one company or industry tries to polish its environmental bonafides at the expense of another. It is understandable that the increasingly beset paper industry would rise to its own defense, but it is a little disappointing that Toshiba backed down so quickly when most would agree that it is in the right from an environmental standpoint. The printed word certainly still has its place, but it’s hard to argue that the continued unnecessary printing of documents that could just as easily be edited, distributed and read electronically is anything but a detriment to the environment. It would have been nice to see Toshiba stick to its guns.

Where do you come down in this dispute?

Source: Earth Techling