Why paper is a climate-change issue
If you are worried about your individual or business carbon footprint (and you should be!) cutting your paper consumption could be a simple way to make a big reduction.
Paper is made of carbon, but the amount of actual carbon in each sheet is dwarfed by the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during its life cycle. Carbon emissions happen from the forests where paper is sourced, at pulp mills where it is made, through transportation, conversion into useful products and even after it has been thrown away.
All this ‘paper vapour’ adds up to significant levels, with estimates of up to 10kg of carbon emissions to each 1kg of paper use. Given that global paper consumption is just about to hit 400 million tonnes per year, this means paper’s contribution to climate change is substantial.
See here for some suggestions about how you can reduce your paper vapour.