CD ROM vs Paper

If you mean, giving a CD to audience members vs giving them paper versions: Paper is REALLY minimal resources, and there still are lots of trees. Seriously! Think of all the material components and the technology inherent in just a CD Rom. Then think of all the energy, water, etc used in production of simple paper and complex CDs. Then also consider the energy utilisation of production of the paper copies or CD copies (photocopy machine vs computer burning) That's a life cycle analysis. I don't want to be simplistic, but I'd have a hard time imagining that paper wouldn't beat a CD hands down. The trickier thing is to assess whether a paper copy would be cheaper than placing on a website for download. The analysis has to take into account the way a computer gets used. E.g., turning it on, electrical energy used in "surfing the web" to the site, then the likely patterns of looking around the site, getting sidetracked into other interesting but tangential pages or documents, etc. With paper, you target that and only that to the user, and the paper may be recyclable (depending on facilities). So altho it *feels like* a lot of waste, it may not be when all facets of production and use are taken into account.

Randy HD

I would guess that it also has something to do with how many "sheets" of paper you put on the CD, which can hold thousands. A good alternative would be to e-mail the presentation to people who are interested, with the added benefit of another name on your e-list. But the bottom line is that our hyper-use of stuff - paper or CDs - is reaching its outer limits. We must do things differently. And seriously, Randy, in the aggregate, paper is anything but a minimal resource. There are lots of trees, but few ancient forests and rapid expansions of deserts worldwide. Trees hold our life-support systems together, and they need to be in the ground, not turned into paper or fuel or housing EXCEPT locally and sustainably - that is, used up no faster than their natural (not tree-farmed) replacement rate. For a primer on our relationship to trees, I highly recommend _Strangely Like War_ by Derrick Jensen.

Best,
Adam

May I suggest purchasing a reusable memory stick for conference attendees and loading it up with all the presentations. We have used this in the past instead of a conference bag or gift and it has been well received. See http://www.greeninggovernment.gc.ca/F5B1C0BC-741C-4493-B4B7-B0D56BBE6566/
Green_Meeting_Guide_07.pdf  for more information.

Analise Saely

Green Citizenship Coordinator/
Coordonnatrice d'cocivisme
Environmental Affairs Division/
Division des affaires environnementales
Environment Canada/
Environnement Canada
1040 St. Joseph
Gatineau, QC K1A 0H3
T: (819) 997-9807
F: (819) 994-5068
E: [email protected]