What do you think about when you consider the latest high technology gadgets? It will differ from one individual to another. Some may think that they’re trendy. Others might feel that they cost way too much. Perhaps you feel that they’re overly complex and frequently difficult to operate. It very much depends on your own individual viewpoint. However, it’s probably a fair bet to say that you almost certainly don’t associate the latest “must have” electronic gadget with doing your bit for the environment – but electronic devices can, in the right circumstances, be environmentally friendly.
Digital photo frames for example have become very popular over the last two or three years. Due to competition in the market, prices have fallen dramatically and you can now pick up perfectly serviceable examples for around about the same price that you might pay for a conventional photo frame. Digital frames have a number of perceived advantages, one of which is their ability to display hundreds of different photographs using a single frame.
A lot will depend upon how many photographs you take in an average year, but if you are in the habit of getting a bit snap happy then using a digital frame to display your photo collection could have a positive environmental impact. Whether you remove the need to have hard copies of photos developed at a processing lab or if you just print out less using your computer, you will wind up consuming fewer materials.
Another good, and very topical, example is the current trendy gadget – the e-book reader. E-book readers have actually been available for quite some time, but they really caught the public’s imagination in 2009 and now seem poised to increase sales even further in 2010. The Kindle reader is currently the most popular by a long way and Sony have also established a good market presence.
125 million trees are cut down every year to provide the paper required to supply the U.S. book, magazine and newspaper industry sector. Large amounts of water, energy and a whole host of chemicals are also required to satisfy the nation’s reading habit. On top of that, since books are a physical product they need to be delivered from the publisher to the book store – generally using road transport. The fuel used by customers who make a car trip to and from the store is also a factor in determining the final carbon footprint of a standard book.
Of course, e-books do not consume large quantities of paper, ink etc. in their production. Also, given that there is no physical product, electronic books may be downloaded from the internet instead of using road delivery.
Of course, as both e-book readers and digital photo frames are themselves physical products, they do require both materials and energy for their production. They also require delivery to the point of sale or direct to the final customer. Even so, according to studies have shown that, even when the materials consumed are offset against the savings in paper, energy, ink etc. that such devices can be better for the environment (though it will depend, to a certain extent, on how many books you read or how many photos you process each year).
