Printed Scholarly Books and E-Book Reading Devices: a Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Two Book Options
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Report No. CSS03-04 August 24, 2003 Printed Scholarly Books and E-book Reading Devices: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Two Book Options Greg Kozak Printed Scholarly Books and E-book Reading Devices: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Two Book Options By: Greg Kozak A project submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Resource Policy and Behavior) School of Natural Resources and Environment University of Michigan Ann Arbor August 23 , 2003 Faculty Advisors: Associate Research Scientist Gregory A. Keoleian, Chair Professor Jonathan Bulkley A report of the Center for Sustainable Systems Report No. CSS03-04 Document Description PRINTED SCHOLARLY BOOKS AND E-BOOK READING DEVICES: A COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF TWO BOOK OPTIONS Greg Kozak Center for Sustainable Systems, Report No. CSS03-04 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan August 23, 2003 248 pp., tables, figures, 23 appendices This document is available online at: http://css.snre.umich.edu Center for Sustainable Systems School of Natural Resources and Environment University of Michigan 440 Church Street, Dana Building Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1041 Phone: 734-764-1412 Fax: 734-647-5841 Email: [email protected] Web: http://css.snre.umich.edu © Copyright 2003 by the Regents of the University of Michigan ABSTRACT Books have endured because they are remarkably well engineered; they are easy to use, portable, relatively cost-effective, and they require no instructions or manuals for their use. Despite their utility, however, conventional books published on paper have numerous limitations. Traditional, print-based books can be extremely costly to produce, store, ship, and sell. Less evident, however, are the environmental burdens associated with the infrastructure and activities necessary to produce and deliver the conventional book. With the advantage of being able to store thousands of pages of text and graphics in a single portable device, dedicated electronic reading devices (e-readers), on the other hand, are gaining in popularity. Several of these e-readers are now on the market and hold promise for the future of electronic publications in history, science and technology. This paper presents the findings of a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of two different book options – electronic and print. The purpose of this study is two-fold: (1) to investigate the life cycle environmental aspects of e-publishing of scholarly books and e-book reading devices (i.e. e- readers); and (2) to apply the life cycle models to a variety of scholarly e-book applications and compare LCA results for traditional print based counterparts. This study compared the life-cycle burdens and impacts of a college student reading 40 scholarly books and the equivalent amount of digitized information (53.6-MB) using a dedicated e-book reading device. Total primary energy, material and water requirements, air and water pollutant emissions, and solid wastes for each system were evaluated. By comparing these two book options, this study provides industry, consumers, and policy makers with valuable information necessary to make environmentally informed decisions regarding e-book technologies. E-reader critics have rightfully argued that e-readers are not conducive to long sessions of reading text from a screen, lack the tactile appeal and “atmosphere” of conventional books, and are inconvenient in the sense that they represent yet another device that the user must purchase and learn to use. However, from an environmental standpoint, it is difficult to argue against the integration of e-readers into a school’s curriculum, especially if the original user chooses to retain rather than resell the book or if the utility of owning the book expires (i.e. the book is discarded). The most notable observations gleaned from this study are as follows: • Environmental burdens associated with electronic book storage (i.e. server storage) are small when compared to the physical storage of books (i.e. bookstore). • E-readers eliminate personal transportation-related burdens since they allow for instant accessibility to digitized texts (i.e. anywhere there is Internet access). • E-readers are more compact and are less material intensive than the equivalent number of printed books. • Although the most significant contributor to the e-reader’s LCA results, electricity generation for e-reader use had less of an environmental impact than did paper production for the conventional book system. The intention of this study is not discourage the use of the printed book. Rather, this paper provides industry, consumers, and policy makers with a better understanding of the potential environmental impacts associated with traditional and electronic book systems. Further, this study also provides another case study examining the relationship between information technology and the environment that can contribute to product design improvements and the development of more sustainable technologies. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Brad Allenby and others at the AT & T Industrial Ecology Fellowship Program, whose generous financial support made this thesis possible. Thank you to the people at Edwards Brothers, Inc., particularly Steve Schultz, for your participation and co-operation in this study. Many thanks also to the industry representatives and other interested parties who participated in this study. Thank you to the University of Michigan faculty/staff members who have assisted in the course of this work. In particular, Frank Filisko, professor – Department of Material Sciences and Engineering, and Frannie Skomurski, PhD student – Department of Geological Sciences provided invaluable assistance and technical support. Thank you to staff at the Center for Sustainable Systems, especially David Gard and Marc Melaina, who generously donated their time and expertise in the form of several peer reviews during the course of this project. Thanks to all of my friends an family for your unending love and patience. Most importantly, I thank my committee advisor, Gregory Keoleian, for his continuous guidance, inspiration, and enthusiasm. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________ 1 1.1 ORIGINS OF STUDY_____________________________________________________________ 1 1.1.1 Electronic Publishing, E-books, and Their Impacts _______________________________ 1 1.1.2 Focus on E-readers ________________________________________________________ 2 1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF TOPIC _________________________________________________________ 2 1.2.1 Impact of Disruptive Technologies ____________________________________________ 2 1.2.2 Growth in Interest over E-books ______________________________________________ 3 1.3 METHOD OF INQUIRY ___________________________________________________________ 4 1.4 ORGANIZATION OF REPORT ______________________________________________________ 4 2 AN OVERVIEW OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND E-BOOKS_____________________ 5 2.1 WHAT IS ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING? _______________________________________________ 5 2.2 WHAT ARE E-BOOKS? __________________________________________________________ 5 2.3 E-BOOK NICHES _______________________________________________________________ 5 2.4 GENERAL BENEFITS OF E-BOOKS __________________________________________________ 6 2.5 E-READER ADVANTAGES ________________________________________________________ 7 2.6 GENERAL LIMITATIONS OF E-BOOKS _______________________________________________ 7 2.7 E-READER LIMITATIONS_________________________________________________________ 8 3 METHODOLOGY _______________________________________________________________ 9 3.1 LCA COMPONENTS ___________________________________________________________ 10 3.1.1 Goal Definition and Scope__________________________________________________ 10 3.1.2 Inventory Analysis ________________________________________________________ 10 3.1.3 Impact Assessment________________________________________________________ 10 3.1.4 Life Cycle Interpretation ___________________________________________________ 11 3.2 LCA BENEFITS_______________________________________________________________ 11 3.3 LCA LIMITATIONS ____________________________________________________________ 11 4 GOAL DEFINITION AND SCOPE ________________________________________________ 12 4.1 INTRODUCTION_______________________________________________________________ 12 4.1.1 Purpose of Study _________________________________________________________ 12 4.1.2 Previous Research ________________________________________________________ 12 4.1.3 Intended Audience and Use of Study __________________________________________ 13 4.2 SYSTEM BOUNDARIES _________________________________________________________ 13 4.3 GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS _______________________________________________________ 14 4.4 FUNCTIONAL UNIT ____________________________________________________________ 14 4.5 SYSTEM DESCRIPTIONS ________________________________________________________ 16 4.5.1 Traditional Book System ___________________________________________________ 17 4.5.1.1 Material Production Stage ________________________________________________________ 17 4.5.1.2 Manufacturing Stage ____________________________________________________________ 17 4.5.1.3 Distribution Stage______________________________________________________________ 17 4.5.1.4 Use Stage_____________________________________________________________________ 17 4.5.1.5 End of Life Stage _______________________________________________________________ 17 4.5.2