The exponential growth of digital technology has changed the ways people consume books.
It is estimated that ebook sales make up around 15-20% of the market in Australia (although this varies greatly between genres).In the education sector, a near-universal shift to online learning in 2020 and 2021 during COVID lockdowns accelerated the shift towards digital materials.
E-books and audiobooks are generally assumed to have a lesser environmental impact than their paper counterparts, but this is not always the case.
‘Depending on format, extent, distribution parameters and source of estimate, a printed book’s lifetime carbon footprint might range between 1.5kg–7.5kg of emissions. In contrast, the devices we use to consume digital content might have between 50kg–150kg of lifetime emissions from manufacture to use, with smartphones at the lower end of that range, and e-readers at the upper end.’
– The Bookseller, Emission invisible
Research from Montreal-based Ciraig has found that it is not possible to make a general statement as to whether print or digital has the lower environmental impact, as the respective footprints depend heavily on their life cycles after they reach consumers, which is difficult to measure.
The impact differs depending on the kind of device used (computers, smartphones, tablets, e-readers etc). The footprint is greater with e-readers produced solely for reading, manufactured in an emissions-heavy process with non-renewable materials.
For the carbon footprint of an e-reader to be offset it must be used fairly heavily over the course of several years. Aside from the fossil fuels and resources used to produce electronic devices, the storage of e-book data online also creates its own significant carbon footprint.
‘digital reading apps rely on cloud computing infrastructure to enable us to download books or stream audiobooks. Collectively those internet services represent 3.7% of global carbon emissions, comparable to the global airline industry’
– The Bookseller, Emission invisible
Further reading