There’s a lot of information all over the Internet about the so-called polluting nature of ebooks. Quite simply, the figures are announced at the drop of a hat. It’s time to find out how eco friendly are eBooks!
TLDR: it’s much better (eco friendly) to read an ebook than to buy and read the paper version if you already own hardware capable of reading the ebook.
What is the carbon footprint of an ebook?
There are studies on the carbon footprint of e-readers and paper books, but not ebook reading alone.
Moreover, not all sources agree, since the studies are commissioned by e-reader manufacturers (Kindle) or paper book publishers (Hachette french publisher). And I think it’s all more or less false – but you can read it here if you’re interested: https://reporterre.net/Livre-papier-ou-liseuse-electronique-qui-est-le-plus-ecolo – French link.
Of course, the media pick up on all this without paying any attention to the fine print.
So let’s start again with what an ebook is.
> An ebook is a computer file of a few hundred Kb to a few Mb in size.
> This file is transmitted by an Internet server to your e-reader when you download it.
To take into account everything that goes into reading an ebook, we also need to take into account the download when calculating the carbon footprint of an ebook.
Note that this mode of operation is simple and corresponds almost identically to the way a web page is retrieved from a web server by your Internet browser.
We can therefore rely on existing studies on the subject to calculate this.
A study that seems to me to be fairly serious and reliable arrives at an average carbon footprint of 5 g of CO² for a web page. And therefore, for an ebook too. See here: https://en.reset.org/whats-carbon-footprint-your-website/
An ebook can be read, with a carbon footprint of around 5g of CO² on a smartphone, tablet, e-reader or computer! After all, it’s just a file downloaded onto a device.
On the other hand, the carbon footprint of a e-reader is undoubtedly greater, at around 100 to 200kg of CO² (compared with less than 100kg of CO² for a smartphone).
If you already own a device that allows you to read books, the most eco-friendly thing to do is to use the equipment you have at your disposal to read your digital books (ebooks), giving priority to the most energy-efficient devices:
- Smartphone
- Tablet
- E-reader
The use of a computer is not recommended, however, as the time it takes to read your book (5 to 10 hours) can consume a lot of electricity.
As far as the carbon footprint of electricity is concerned, if the vast majority of which comes from nuclear power, it is negligible. But this is a different and more complex subject.
Yes, ebooks are green!
In conclusion, it’s much better (eco friendly) to read an ebook than to buy and read the paper version if you already own hardware capable of reading the ebook.
So if you have a smartphone, tablet or e-reader, the ebook is much greener than the paper book when you buy it.
Reading an ebook could help combat global warming.
