Saturday, June 19, 2010

How Green is Your iPad?

Now and then, I'll run across a bit of news that I'd like to blog about, but won't be sure where to post it. That was definitely the case with this particular item about how "green" an iPad actually is. (And isn't that an awesome photo? I found that here.)

You see, I have five blogs. One of the others is Green Reality Check, on which I try to scrutinize green claims (and discuss unexpected or odd aspects of sustainability and green concepts, in general).

This article would be a perfect fit for that blog, but it also fits quite well with this one. I figure many readers are interested in the sustainability of using an iPad or other electronic device for reading, as opposed to reading DTBs (aka, dead tree books).

Plus the article has an awesomely detailed analysis of the iPad's green qualities, looking at the carbon footprint of iPad versus DTBs and showing how many DTBs you'd have to read in order to create the same footprint as an iPad. They came up with 18, although someone else said it was more like 100. A bit of a difference, I'd say, which makes the point debatable and the article quite appropriate for the green blog. However, even though the analysis (debatable or not) makes it thoroughly appropriate for the other blog, it could also be of interest to book lovers. (Also not sure the analysis takes into account the tendency of ebook readers to simply collect downloads in massive numbers and worry about actually reading them later. *sigh* But, anyway ...)

In addition, the issues of materials used, waste and labor standards in manufacturing facilities are raised, but deferred for a future post. So you might want to be aware of that if you'd like to follow up.

Anyway, I hope you find this educational. (Or, at least, not completely boring.)

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