Greenpeace: Take a page from your paper-waste playbook

Replacing the physical with the electronic — also known as dematerialization — is among the effective techniques for achieving greener business practices. Dematerialization comes in various forms, such as replacing physical CDs with downloaded MP3s; conducting meetings virtually via video or telepresence instead of bringing far-flung people to one place; and using electronic documents instead of physical ones.

The topic was discussed at the recent GreenNet forum in San Francisco and continues to linger in my mind for a particular reason: Among the members of the panel advocating the merits of dematerialization was Casey Harrell, Greenpeace’s own IT analyst.

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The irony is at this same event, Greenpeace announced its “Cool IT” list for 2010, celebrating the greenest high-tech companies out there. To help disseminate this announcement, Greenpeace handed out informational packets to press members and anyone else who wanted a copy.

Each packet included three pieces of recycled paper, printed on front and back with soy-based inks. All three pages, in one way or another, described the Cool IT Challenge and Leaderboard. The pages came tucked in a sturdy, Greenpeace-emblazoned, paper pocket file folder (also recycled), along with a business card — again, printed on recycled paper — from Greenpeace’s press officer. The press officer’s contact information was also on one of the aforementioned sheets of recycled paper.

Notably, Greenpeace gave a presentation about its Cool IT announcement during a session at the event. Additionally, all the same information is available on the Greenpeace Website.

The irony should be clear: I didn’t need three pieces of papers in a file folder with a business card to cover the story. (Truth be told, I didn’t cover it; someone from the IDG News Service did.) But had I been writing about it and wanted to use Greenpeace-provided materials, I’d have consulted the electronic materials online for simplicity. The venue even had wireless Internet access, and far as I could tell, every member of the press had a computer.

In Greenpeace’s defense, perhaps there’s a compelling reason to distribute paper materials when electronic materials are readily available. Maybe studies show that the press is more likely to cover your story if you give them tangible material as a reference and reminder — and the more you give them, the more they’ll write.

That argument shines a light on the challenge organizations have in embracing greener practices: striking a balance between sustainability and business success. GreenNet certainly would’ve been greener had it been a virtual event, for example, with a Web portal guiding attendees to streaming video presentations, chat rooms, and PDFs.

But would it have attracted as many people? Would it have been as interactive and engaging? Would it have been as successful? Having checked out a couple of online events, I’d have to say no. As it stands, the technology isn’t really available to provide an equivalent experience with a reduced environmental impact.

Sure, telepresence, videoconferencing, and other collaboration tools can work just fine for e-learning — where the focus is generally on just one person — or in face-to-face meetings. But for the time being, there’s really no way to pull off a larger-scale forum or conference, the success of which relies on the ability for a large group of people to interact. Don’t take my word for it — Dennis Yang at Techdirt shares this view.

Organizers of GreenNet did, by the way, make efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the event, including carbon offset. Distributing lunches in individual cardboard boxes, in which each food item was individually wrapped or packaged in plastic, seemed a little less than green, but that strays from the IT topic until such time that we can distribute calories over IP.

I do think, however, that Greenpeace, of all organizations, could have used a green-tech forum to better demonstrate how technology can be used to make business processes greener. Why hand out three pages, some in color, in a paper folder with a business card when one piece of paper (or perhaps even none) would suffice? Every little bit of conservation helps, right?

This story, “Greenpeace: Take a page from your paper-waste playbook,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in green IT and read more of Ted Samson’s Sustainable IT blog at InfoWorld.com.